A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

a Greek rhetorician and historian, was a son of Ptolemaeus and born in the Attic demos of Herms. (Böckh, Corp. Inscript. i. n. 380, p. 439, &c.) He lived in the third century after Christ, in the reigns of Claudius Gothicus, Tacitus, Aurelian, and Probus, till about A. D. 280. (Eunap. Vit. Porphyr. p. 21.) He was regarded by his contemporaries and later writers as a man of most extensive learning; and we learn from the inscription just referred to, that he was honoured at Athens with the highest offices that existed in his native city. In A. D. 262. when the Goths penetrated into Greece and ravaged several towns, Dexippus proved that he was no less great as a general and a man of business than as a scholar, for, after the capture of Athens, he gathered around him a number of bold and courageous Athenians, and took up a strong position on the neighbouring hills. Though the city itself was taken by the barbarians, and Dexippus with his band was cut off from it, he made an unexpected descent upon Peiraeeus and took vengeance upon the enemy. (Dexipp. Exc. de Bell. Scyth. p. 26, &c.; Trebell. Poll. Gallien. 13.)

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