(
1. Of Athens. A tragedian, and author of a poem entitled
2. The author of a poem entitled
3. The author of a poem entitled
1. A writer on metres, whose ) de Fig. Num 2.396, ed. Krehl.)
He was the father of the grammarian Irenaeus, and the teacher of Minutius Pacatas. He
probably lived shortly before the time of Augustus. (Suid. s. v.
Bibl. Graec.
vol. i. p. 512, vol. vi. pp. 206, 344, 368, vol. viii. p. 126; Ritschl, Die
Alexandr. Bibl. pp. 138, &c.)
2. Perhaps the same as the preceding, a grammarian, whose commentaries on Homer are quoted
by Eustathius and other scholiasts on Homer, and by Apollonius and Hesychius. Iriarte
mentions some grammatical MSS. by a certain Heliodorus in the Royal Library at Madrid.
(Villoison, Proleg. in Apollon. Lex. Hom. pp. 24, 61; Fabric. ll. cc.; Ritschl, l.c., who considers the Heliodorus
who wrote scholia to the
3. A rhetorician at Rome in the time of Augustus, whom Horace mentions as the companion of
his journey to Brundisium, calling him " by far the most learned of the Greeks." (Sat. 1.5. 2, 3.)
4. A Stoic philosopher at Rome, who became a delator in the reign of
Nero. Among his victims was his own disciple, Licinius Silanius. He was attacked by Juvenal
(Sat. i. vv. 33, 35, and schol.).
5. A rhetorician, and also private secretary to the emperor Hadrian. He was a contemporary
and rival of Dionysius of Miletus, who, we are told, once said to him, " The emperor can
give you money and honour, but he cannot make you an orator." He was probably the same
person as Heliodorus of Syria, who, as the reward of his skill in rhetoric, was made
praefect of Egypt, and whose son, Avidius Cassius, attempted to usurp the purple in the
reign of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. [CASSIUS
AVIDIUS.] (Dion, 69.3, 71.22, and Reimarus ad
loc.) Reimarus confounds Heliodorus with Hadrian's other secretary, Celer. That they
were not the same person is proved by the distinct mention of both of them in an oration of
Aristeides. (Orat. Sac. iv. pp. 595, 602.) There can be little doubt
that this is also the Heliodorus whom Aelius Spartianus mentions as a philosopher and friend
of Hadrian, but who, the same writer tells us, suffered the usual fate of Hadrian's friends,
and was abused by the emperor " famosissimis literis." (Spart. Had. 15,
16.) It is doubtful whether this Heliodorus or the preceding [No. 3] is the grammarian who
is satirically alluded to by the epigrammatists of the Greek Anthology. (Brunck, Anal. vol. i. p. ll, vol. ii. pp. 327, 332.)
6. Philostratus relates the life of an Arabian sophist, Heliodorus, who lived under
Caracalla, and gained the favour of the emperor in a curious way, and who, after his
patron's death, was made the praefect of a certain island. (Vit.
Sophist. 22.)
An Athenian, surnamed de Atheninsium Anathematis. This work was
one of the authorities for Pliny's account of the Greek artists. Heliodorus lived after the
time of Antiochus Epiphanes, at least if he be the person meant in the first passage of
Athenaeus now referred to. (s.. vv.
Elench. in Lib. xxxiii. xxxiv. xxxv.)
He is also apparently mentioned in a passage of I lutarch as the author of a work Vit. X. Orat. p. 849c),
but in that passage we should probably read de Hist.
Graec. p. 448, ed. Westermann.)
The author of the oldest and by far the best of the Greek romances, Heliodorus, the son of
Theodosius, was a native of Syria, and was born, not, as Photius says, at Aminda, but at
Emesa, as he himself tells us at the H. E. 5.22.) Nicephorus (H. E.
12.34) adds that, on the ground of the alleged injury which had been done to the morals of
young persons by the reading of the
His romance is in ten books, and is entitled
Though very deficient in those characteristics of modern fiction which appeal to the universal sympathies of our nature, the romance of Heliodorus is extremely interesting on account of the rapid succession of strange and not altogether improbable adventures, the many and various characters introduced, and the beautiful scenes described. The opening scene is admirable, and the point of the story at which it occurs is very well chosen. The language is simple and elegant, though it is sometimes too diffuse, and often deviates from the pure Attic standard. The whole work, as compared with the best of later Greek romances, that of Achilles Tatius for example, has the superiority of greater nature, less artificial and rhetorical elaboration, with more real eloquence, less improbability in its incidents, and greater skill in the management of the episodes, and, in short, the superiority of a work of original talent over an imitation. It formed the model for subsequent Greek romance writers. It is often quoted by the title of
In modern times the
The
There is an iambic poem, in 269 verses, on the art of making gold, which is attributed by a MS. in the royal library at Paris to Heliodorus the bishop of Tricca.
It exists in MS. in several libraries in Europe, and is Bibl. Graec. vol. viii. p. 119Lex. Bibl. s. v.) believe the poem to be genuine, but Jacobs calls it
the clumsy fabrication of a later time, to which the name of Theodosius was prefixed to
give it the semblance of authority; and he suggests that the name Heliodorus may have been used, after the fashion of the Alchymists and
Rosicrucians, on account of its etymological signification.
Ersch and Gruber's Encyclopädie, s. v.
1. Of Larissa.
He was the author of a little work on optics, entitled
Opuscula
Mythologica, 1670, 8vo.
Some other scientific works of Heliodorus are mentioned.
Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. viii. p. 128.
2. Alchymist. (See No. IV.)
VI. Several Heliodori of less importance are mentioned by Fabricius. (Bibl. Graec. vol. viii. pp. 126, 127.)
The Greek writers confound this name with Herodianus, Herodorus, Herodotus, Hesiodus, and Diodorus.
a statuary in bronze and marble, mentioned by Pliny among the artists who made " athletas
et armatos et venatores sacrificantesque" (34.8. s. 19.34). He was the maker of a celebrated
marble group, representing Pan and Olympus wrestling, which stood in the portico of Octavia,
in the time of Pliny, who calls it " alterum in terris symplegma nobile" (36.5. s. 4.10;
comp. §. 6, and CEPHISODOTUS.)
(
He may be the same person who wrote a work on surgery, which is quoted by Asclepiades
Pharmacion (ap. (Gal. De Compos. Medic. sec. Gen. 6.14, vol. xiii. p.
849), and Paulus Aegineta (De Re Med. 4.49). Only some fragments
remain, chiefly preserved by Oribasius and Nicetas.
Haller's Biblioth. Chirurg. vol. i. p.71 ; Kühn, Additam. ad Elench. Medic. Vet. a J.A. Fabricio, &c. exhibitum.