A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

Smith, William

A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. William Smith, LLD, ed. 1890

33. Of MILETUS, a sophist of the time of the emperor Hadrian. He was a pupil of Isaeus the Assyrian, and distinguished for the elegance of his orations. He was greatly honoured by the cities of Asia, and more especially by the emperor Hadrian, who made him praefect of a considerable province, raised him to the rank of a Roman eques, and assigned to him a place in the museum of Alexandria. Notwithstanding these distinctions, Dionysius remained a modest and unassuming person. At one time of his life he taught rhetoric at Lesbos, but he died at Ephesus at an advanced age, and was buried in the marketplace of Ephesus, where a monument was erected to him. Philostratus has preserved a few specimens of his oratory. (Vit. Soph. 1.20.2, 100.22; D. C. 69.3; Eudoc. p. 130; Suidas.)