DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE, and PSEUDO-DIONYSIUS. The name of Diony sius the Areopagite' enlivens the scanty ac count of success which attended the visit of Paul to Athens (Acts xvii. 34). Nothing further is related of him in the N. T., but ecclesiastical historians record some particulars concerning his career, both before and after his conversion. Suidas recounts that he was an Athenian by birth, and eminent for his literary attainments ; that he studied first at Athens and afterwards at Heliopolis in Egypt ; and that, while in the latter city, he beheld that remarkable eclipse of the sun, as he terms it, which took place at the death of Christ, and exclaimed to his friend Apol lophanes, TO if r3 vazrxbizrz dup. rcicrxet, 'Either the divinity suffers, or sympathises with some sufferer.' He further details, that after Dionysius returned to Athens, he was admitted into the Areopagus ; and, having embraced Chris tianity about A. D. so, was constituted Bishop of Athens by the Apostle Paul himself. Syncellus and Nicephorus both record the last particular. Aristides, an Athenian philosopher, asserts that he suffered martyrdom—a fact generally admitted by historians ; but the precise period of his death, whether under Trajan or Adrian, or, which is most likely, under Domitian, they do not determine. Whatever credit may be given to these traditions, the name of Dionysius is certainly interesting in a literary point of view, owing to an attempt matte by some writer, in after times, to personate the Areopagite ; and who contrived to pass his pro ductions on the Christian world as of the Apostolic age, and thereby greatly influenced the spirit both of the Eastern and Western Churches. Daille (de Scriptis Dionysii Areopagita, Geneva', 1666) places this Pseudo-Dionysius A. D. 420 ; Pearson, in the latter times of Eusebius Csariensis (Vindic. par. i. c. to, in fine). Others have conjectured
that these productions were written about A.D. 36o, but not compiled till the fifth or nearly the sixth century. There have been some persons who have contended that they are the real works of the Areopagite. Among these are Claude David, a Maurist monk, in 17o2 ; Bernard of Sept Fonds, under the name of Adrian, in 1708 ; and F. Honoratus, of St. Mary, a Carmelite friar, in 1720. The first uncontroverted occa sion on which these suppositious writings are referred to, is in the conference between the Severians (a sect of Eutychians) and the Catholics, held in the emperor Justinian's palace, A. D. 532, in which they are quoted by the heretical party. Maximus, and other writers in the following ages, refer to them frequently. Different opinions have been held as to the real author of these produc tions. They were ascribed at an early period to Apollinaris, Bishop of Laodicea in the fourth cen tury—an opinion to which the learned Cave in clines, though he thinks that Apollinaris, the son, may have been the author. He remarks that the peculiar acquirements and turn of mind of Apolli naris, the father, as described by Socrates and So zomen, would have well qualified him to have written the Areopagitica. There have not been wanting instances in which suppositions works were fathered upon great names by disciples of the Apollinarian school (Leontius, Lib de Sect. act. Aril p. The resemblance between the Areopagitica and the writings of Proclus and Plotinus is so obvious as to afford great probability that the Pseudo-Dio nysius did not write much earlier than the fifth century (Cave's Hist. Literar. 1720, p. 142, 143 ; Lardner's Works, vol. vii. p. 371, ed. 1788 ; Fabric. Bib. Bibliog.. ; Herzog, End. s. v.) —J. F. D.