LUCIAN, the martyr, was born, like the famous heathen writer of the same name, at Samosata. His parents, who were Christians, died when he was in his twelfth year. In his-youth he studied under Macarius of Edessa, and after receiving baptism he adopted a strictly ascetic life, and devoted himself with zeal to the continual study of Scripture. Settling at Antioch, he became a presbyter, and, while supporting himself by his skill as a swift writer, became celebrated as a teacher, pupils crowding to him from all quarters, so that he is regarded as the founder of the famous theological school of Antioch. He did not escape suspicion of heresy, and is represented as the connecting link between Paul of Samosata and Arius. Indeed, on the deposition of the former, he was excluded from ecclesiastical fellowship by three successive bishops of Antioch, while the latter seems to have been among his pupils (Theodoret, II. E., i. 3, 4). He was, however, confirmed by his courageous martyrdom. He was carried to Nicomedia before the cruel Maximin, and persisting in his faith perished 312 A.D., under torture and hunger, which he refused to satisfy with food offered to idols. His remains were conveyed to Drepanum in Bithynia, and under Constantine the town was founded anew in his honour with the name of Helenopolis, and exempted from taxes by the emperor (327 A.D., see Chron. Pasch., Bonn ed., p. 527), Here, on the day after Epiphany 387 A.D. (the day on which his martyrdom was commemorated), Chrysostom delivered the panegyrical homily from which, with notices in Ensebius E., ix. 6), Theodoret (toe. cit.), and the other ecclesiastical historians, the life by Jerome (Fi•. Ill., cap. 77), but especially from the account by S. Metaphrastes (cited at length in Bernhardy's notes to Suidas, s.ec. Fogute.), the facts above given are derived. See also, for the celebration of his day in the Syriac churches, Wright, Cat. of Syr. MSS., p. 283.

Jerome says, " Feruntur erns de Fide libelli et breves ad nonnullos epistolic "; but only a short fragment of one epistle remains (Chron. Pasch., p. 516). The authorship of a confession of faith ascribed to Lucian and put forth at the semi-Arian synod of Antioch (341 A.D.) is questioned. Lucian's most important literary labour was his edition of the Septuagint corrected by the Hebrew text, which, according to Jerome (Adv. Ref., ii. 77), was in current use from Constantinople to Antioch. That the edition of Lucian is represented by the text used by Chrysostom and Theodoret, as well as by certain extant MSS., such as the Arundelian of the British Museum, was proved.hy F. Field (Peal. ad Origeeeis llexapla, cap. ix.), who points out that Lucian filled up lacume of the Septuagint text as compared with the Hebrew from the other Greek translations, that his method was harmonistic, and that he sometimes indulged in paraphrastic additions and other changes. Before the publication of Field's Harapla, Lagarde had already directed his attention to the Antiochian text (as that of Lucian may be called). See his Symmieta (ii. 142), and Ankiindigung diner news, d. gr. Uebersetzung des A. 7'. (1882), in which an edition of this recension is promised, and the means for effecting it described. The accomplishment of this task may be looked to as the first step in the process of tracing backwards the history of the Septuagint.

From a statement of Jerome in his preface to the gospels it seems probable that Lucian had also a share in fixing the Syrian recension of the New Testament text, but of this it is impossible to speak with certainty. Compare the introductory volume of Westcott and Hart's New Testament, p. 138.