LUCIAN (Amenaleis), a celebrated Greek writer, was born at Samo sata, a city on the west bank of the Euphrates, in the Syrian province of Comraagene. We possess no particulars respecting his life on which any reliance can be placed, except a few scattered notices in his own writings. From these it appears that he was born about the latter end of Trojan's reign, that he lived under both the Antonince, and died in the reign of Aurelius Commodus, or shortly afterwards. His parents, who were iu humble circumstances, placed him with his maternal uncle, a 'sculptor, in order to learn statuary ; but he soon quitted this trade, and applied himself to the study of the law. He atterwards practised at the bar in Syria and Greece ; but not meeting with much success in this profession, he resolved to settle in Gaul as a teacher of rhetoric, where he soon obtained great celebrity and a numerous school. He appears to have remained in Gaul till ho was about forty, when he gave up the profession of rhetoric, after having acquired considerable wealth. The greater part, if not all of his dialogues appear to have been written after this time; but most of his other pieces, such as his Hercules,' Hesiod," Herodotus,' Zeuxis," Bacchus,' the Dipsades,' &c., were probably written during the time that he taught rhetoric in Gaul. During the remainder of his life we find him travelling about from place to place, and visiting successively Macedonia, Cappadocia, Paphlagonia, and Bithynia. The greater part of his time however was passed in Athens, where he lived on terms of the greatest intimacy with Demonax, a philosopher of great celebrity, and where most of his works were probably written.
Towards the latter part of his life he held a lucrative public office in Egypt, which was bestowed upon him by the Emperor Commodes.
The account of his being torn to death by dogs for having attacked the Christian religion rests on no credible authority, and was pro bably invented by Suidas, who appears to have been the earliest to relate it.
The dialogues of Lucian are written in remarkably pure and elegant Greek, and are free from the false ornaments and artificial rhetoric which characterise most of the writings of his contemporaries. Modern critics have usually given him his full weed of praise for these excellences, and have also deservedly admired the keenness of his wit, hie great talent as a writer, and the inimitable ease and flow of his dialogue; but they have seldom done him the justice he deserves. They have either represented him as merely a witty and amusing writer, but without any further merit ; or else they have attacked him as an immoral and infidel author, whose only object was to corrupt the minds of his readers, and to throw ridicule upon all religion. But these opinions appear to us to have arisen from a mis taken and one-sided view of the character of Lucian. He seems to us
to have endeavoured to expose all kinds of delusion, fanaticism, and imposture; the quackery and imposition of the priests, the folly and absurdity of the superstitious, and especially the solemn nonsense, the prating insolence, and the immoral lives of the philosophical charlatans of his age. (See his 'Alexander.') Lucian may, in fact be regarded as the Aristophaues of his age, and, like the great comic poet, he had recourse to raillery and satire to accomplish the great objects be had in view. His study was human character in all its varieties, and the age in which he lived furnished ample materials for his observation. Many of his pictures, though drawn from the cir cumstances of his own times, are true for every age and country. As an instance of this we mention the essay entitled On those who serve the Great for Ilire.' If he sometimes discloses the follies and vices of mankind too freely, and occasionally uses expressions which arc revolting to our ideas of morality, it should be recollected that every author ought to be judged of by the age in which be lived, and not by a standard of religion and morality which was unknown to tho writer. The character of Lucian's mind was decidedly practical ; he was not disposed to believe anything without sufficient evidence of its truth ; and nothing that was ridiculdus or absurd escaped his raillery and sarcasm. The tales of the poets respecting the attributes and exploits of the gods, which were still firmly believed by the common people of his age, were especially the objects of his satire and ridicule in his dialogues between the gods and in many other of his works. That he should have attacked the Christians in common with the false systems of the pagan religion will not appear surprising to any one who considers that Lucian probably never took the trouble to inquire into the doctrines of a religion which was almost universally despised in his time by the higher orders of society. Lucian's state ments have sometimes had an historical value assigned to them which he does not appear to have intended the story of Herodotus reeding. his history at the Olympic games is one of these. [lienonosus.] Lucian had a taste for art, which he has shown by his descriptions in his Action,' ' Zeuxis,"Eikones,' &c.
The best editions of Lucian's works are by Hemsterhusius, who only edited part of the first volume, and Reis, 4 vole. 8vo ; by Leh mann, 9 vole. 8vo, Leip.; the edition published by the Bipout Society; and an edition without notes by Dindorf, Paris, 1840. The best trans lation of Lucian into German is by Wieland, 6 vole. 8vo; in French, by De Belli*, and in Italian by Maiszi. There are English translations by Blount, by Franklin, and by Tooke, 2 vole. 4to, Loud., 1820.