6. Surnamed PATARENSIS, and sometimes, EUBULUS or EUBULIUS, lived in the third, and died in the beginning of the fourth century of our era. He held successively the sees of Olympus and Patara in Lycia (whence Patarensis) and Tyrus in Phoenicia. He was a Christian; and Suidas says that he died the death of a martyr, at Chalcis Ἀνατολῆς (one of the two Chalcis in
1067
Syria), during the reign of Decius (A. D. 249-251) and Valerianus. The addition of the latter name seems to be spurious, since Valerian did not reign with, but after Decius. However the original text of Suidas may be, he was wrong with regard to the time assigned by him to the death of Methodius; for there seems to be no doubt that this divine was a contemporary of Porphyry, and perhaps outlived him; and if he therefore died during one of the later persecutions of the Christians, as is asserted, it might have been in 303, as Cave thinks, or in 311, according to Fabricius. Methodius was a man of great learning and exemplary piety, who enjoyed the general esteem of his contemporaries.[W.P]