A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

79. LAURENTIUS or LYDUS (the LYDIAN), or of PHILADELPHIA, or more fully JOANNES LAURENTIUS Of PHILADELPHIA, the LYDIAN (Ἰωάννης Λαυρέντιος Φιλαδελφεὺς ὁ Λυδός), a Byzantine writer of the sixth century. He was born at Philadelphia, in the ancient Lydia, and the Roman province of Asia, A. D. 490. His parents appear to have been of a respectable family, and of considerable wealth. At the age of twenty-one (A. D. 511) he went to Constantinople, and after deliberation determined to enter the civil service of the government as a " memorialis; " and either while waiting for a suitable vacancy, or in the intervals of his official duties, studied the Aristotelian, and a little of the Platonic, philosophy, under Agapius, the disciple of Proclus. By the favour of his townsman Zoticus, praefect of the praetorium under the emperor Anastasius I., he was appointed a tachygraphus or notarius, in the office of the pracfect, in which office his cousin Ammianus had already obtained considerable advancement; and though the praefecture of Zoticus lasted little more than a year, he put Joannes in the way of making 1000 aurei, without any transgression of justice or moderation. Joannes gratefully addressed a poetical panegyric to his patron, which obtainled from the latter a reward of an aureus per line. The kindness of some official persons (Joannes calls

them " ab actis") to whom Zoticus recommended him, procured for him, without purchase (a most unusual thing) the post of primus chartularius in their office, which he held with several other employments, labouring most assiduously in the fulfilment of his duties. During this period Zoticus, at the suggestion of Joannes' cousin, Ammianus, obtained for him a wife of pre-eminent modesty and considerable wealth. He concluded his official career in the office of matricularius or cornicularius, which was formerly so profitable as to be conferred as the reward of long service in subordinate situations ; but the circumstances of the times and the necessities of the state had diminished the emoluments of the office, so that Joannes was by no means satisfied with the pecuniary results of this long-coveted climax of forty years' service. The disappointment of his hopes in this respect was, however, somewhat alleviated by marks of distinction, and flattering testimonials of his literary attainments.