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LuciAN. A. D. 290. 203
cian was born at Sainosata : but it is said, 1 think, upon the
credit only of*? the Acts of Lucian, and'' of Suiihis, who'
copied those Acts ; which is no authority at all. Tillemont
himself says, that'' ' those Acts are certainly a Avork of
' Metaphrastes, and that they are mixed with fables, and
' have divers faults contrary to the truth of history ; which,'
says he, ' may excuse our not paying- any regard to them,
' when they differ from other authors ; and allows us to take
' little notice of them in other points.' Bollandus likewise
observes upon those Acts, that' the Menologium makes
Lucian a native of Antioch.
It seems to me that the author of tlie Acts, who had little
regard to truth, and was not much concerned to be rightly
informed, confounds upon this occasion Lucian, presbyter
of Antioch, with Lucian the famous heathen dialogist, who
lived in the second century, and was of Samosata.
This may be thought a trifle not worth taking notice of:
but really it gives one offence to see learned men deliver for
history what has no good authority, and supply their accounts
of this eminent person out of a piece which is good for
nothing : nor is this particular altogether trifling ; for when
those learned writers come to consider a difficult question,
concerning Lucian's opinion about the doctrine of the Trinity,
this circumstance of Lucian's being a native of the same city
with Paul, bishop of Antioch, is almost always"" taken in as
a thing of some moment.
I must add that it is to the honour of Theodoric Ruinart,
that he has not inserted those Acts in his collection of
Genuine and Select Acts of Martyrs : nor do I observe that
in his account of Lucian he has borrowed any one article
from them.
Of this person, in his Ecclesiastical Histor}^ Eusebius
writes after this manner, speaking of those who suffered in
the persecution begun by Dioclesian :
' Among* the presi-
' dents of the churches in great cities, Avho suffered at that
e Vid. Bolland. Act. Sanctor. T. i. p. 359.
'' Vid. Suid. V, AnKtavog. et Hodius de Bibl. Text. Orig. 1. iv. c. iii. p. G26.
et 1. iii. P. i. c. 5. p. 303. ' Vid. Kuster. ad Suid. ib. not. 5.
^ See Mem. Ec. T. v. P. iii. p. 345, 346. ' Menologium habet
ex Antiothia Syriae ortum fuisse Lucianum. Act. Sanct. ib. p. 359.
'" Ilium autem familiarera fuisse Pauli Samosateni, credibile est. Fuit enim
ipse oriundus ex urbe Samosatensi, ut legitur in ejus vita. Et cum Paulus ex
ea urbc ad Antiochensem cpiscopatam evectus est, Lucianus quoque ecclesiae
Antiochcnae presbyter fuit. Pagi Ann. 311. n. xii. Conf. Vales. Annot. in
Thdrt. H. E. 1. i. c. iv. Ex urbe Pauli emt haeretici ; a Paulo ad presbyteratum
in nobilissima ecclesia Antiochena promotus fuerat : cujus et errorem cum
imbibisset, &c. Basnag. Ann. 312. n. 13.