LUCIAN (AowctavOs) (c. A.D. 125-C. 190), Greek sophist and satirist, was born at Samosata (Hist. 24), the chief town of Commagene in Syria, on the west bank of the Euphrates (Pisc. 19). The precise dates of his birth and death are uncertain, and the little that is known of his life is derived from his own works, supplemented by the notice in Suidas : "Lucian of Samosata, surnamed 'the blasphemer,' because in his dialogues he alleges that the things told of the gods are absurd. . . . He was at first an advocate in Antioch, but, having ill success in that, he turned to the composition of discourses, and his writings are innu merable. He is said to have been killed by dogs, he having been rabid against the truth. For in his 'Life of Peregrinus' he at tacks Christianity and, wicked man, blasphemes against Christ himself. Wherefore for his madness he suffered meet punish ment in this life, and hereafter with Satan he will be inheritor of the everlasting fire." First apprenticed to his uncle, a sculptor (Somn. 2), he soon abandoned sculpture for the study of rhetoric, in particular forensic oratory. After practising as an advocate in Antioch he adopted the profession of a sophistic rhetorician, and in this capacity he travelled widely, visiting various parts of Asia Minor, Macedonia, Greece, Italy and Gaul (Alex. 57, Bis accus. 27, Apol. 15, De electo 2). In Rome he made the ac quaintance of the Platonist Nigrinus, as he describes in the dia logue of that name. About A.D. 165 he settled in Athens, where he made his home for the next 20 years. Here he devoted him self to writing dialogues of a satiric character. Towards the end of his life he accepted an official post in Egypt, defending himself in the Apologia against the charge of inconsistency to which he thus exposed himself, he having in his earlier De mercede con ductis denounced the practice of serving for hire. In this post he seems to have died, but nothing is known as to the date or circumstances.
Under the name of Lucian we have some 79 prose works, and, in addition, two mock tragedies (the theme being gout) and a collection of 53 epigrams. Neither of the tragedies, Tragodo podagra and Ocypus, is now considered genuine (the latter hav ing apparently been written by the 4th century rhetorician, Aca cius, the correspondent of Libanius), nor is much confidence to be placed in the authenticity of the epigrams, which in any case contain nothing notable, save perhaps No. 17 6pat 1.16x0ocs
ixavcJrarac, ai SE can- as ftypa.,u,uaat Salo( *to at "NO c" M-yovo-c gporois, i.e., Six hours are enough for work; the next four, ex pressed in letters (r, LI say to men "Live" (in the phatic sense of "enjoy life" as in Martial's sera nimis vita est crastina: vive hodie).
Several of the prose writings are considered spurious on grounds of varying certainty—Lucius or the Ass, Nero Macrobii, Philopatris (written in the loth century), Halcyon, De sacri ficiis, De Syria dea, De astrologia, De parasito, De saltatione, Calumniae non temere credendum, Hippias, Charidemus, De mosthenis encomium, Amores. The chronological order of his writings is uncertain, but in general the rhetorical works may be regarded as mainly belonging to his earlier period, the satirical dialogues as the work of his maturity, written for the most part during his residence in Athens.
I. Rhetorical Declamations.—As typical of these may be named the Tyrannicide (a man goes to slay a tyrant but, finding not him but his son, slays the latter, leaving his sword in the wound. The tyrant finds his son slain, takes the sword, and kills himself. The man claims the reward of a tyrannicide) ; Phalaris I. and II. (in I., Phalaris, sending the brazen bull to Delphi, trans mits therewith a defence of his own life and conduct ; in II., a Delphian priest advises acceptance of the offering) ; The Dis inherited, ' AroKnpurrOilevor (a disinherited son learns medicine and, curing his father's madness, is received again into his family, but refusing to cure his step-mother is again disinherited. He pleads against this sentence) ; Praise of the Fly; The Trial of the Vowels (an action is brought by the letter sigma [s] against tau [r] for the encroachments of the latter in the case of Attic TT for Gra, etc., the vowels forming the jury).