A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

a Syrian writer, whose history is involved in partial obscurity, owing to the perplexed and somewhat contradictory notices of him that are furnished by ancient authorities. He was born at Edessa in Mesopotamia, and flourished in the latter half of the second century, and perhaps in the beginning of the third. The Edessene Chronicle (Assemani, Bibl. Orient. 1.389) fixes the year of his birth to A. D. 154; and Epiphanius (Haer. 56) mentions, that he lived in favour with Abgar Bar Manu, who reigned at Edessa from A. D. 152 to A. D. 187. It is difficult to decide whether he was originally educated in the principles of the famous Gnostic teacher Valentinus (as Eusebius seems to intimate), or whether (as Epiphanius implies) he was brought up in the Christian faith and afterwards embraced the Valentinian heresy. It is clear, however, that he eventually abandoned the doctrines of Valentinus and founded a school of his own. For an account of the leading principles of his theology see Mosheim, de Rebus Christian. ante Constantinum M. pp. 395-397, or C. W. F. Walch's Ketzerhistorie, vol. i. pp. 415-422.

[J.M.M]