Aelius Dionysius ( grc-gre, Αἴλιος Διονύσιος) was a Greek
rhetoric
Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate parti ...
ian from
Halicarnassus
Halicarnassus (; grc, Ἁλικαρνᾱσσός ''Halikarnāssós'' or ''Alikarnāssós''; tr, Halikarnas; Carian: 𐊠𐊣𐊫𐊰 𐊴𐊠𐊥𐊵𐊫𐊰 ''alos k̂arnos'') was an ancient Greek city in Caria, in Anatolia. It was located i ...
, who lived in the time of the emperor
Hadrian
Hadrian (; la, Caesar Trâiānus Hadriānus ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He was born in Italica (close to modern Santiponce in Spain), a Roman ''municipium'' founded by Italic settlers in Hispania B ...
.
He was a very skillful musician, and wrote several works on music and its history.
Suda
The ''Suda'' or ''Souda'' (; grc-x-medieval, Σοῦδα, Soûda; la, Suidae Lexicon) is a large 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia of the ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Soudas (Σούδας) or Souidas ...
, ''s.v.'' It is commonly supposed that he was a descendant of the elder
Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Dionysius of Halicarnassus ( grc, Διονύσιος Ἀλεξάνδρου Ἁλικαρνασσεύς,
; – after 7 BC) was a Greek historian and teacher of rhetoric, who flourished during the reign of Emperor Augustus. His literary sty ...
, author of ''Roman Antiquities'', a history of Rome from its founding to the middle third century BCE. He was one of the teachers of
Alexander Peloplaton
Alexander ( Gr. ), nicknamed Pēloplátōn ( "Clay-Plato"), also known as Alexander of Seleucia and Alexander the Platonic, was a Greek rhetorician and Platonist philosopher of the age of the Antonines and the Second Sophistic.
Early life
He was ...
.
Nothing further is known of his life. The following works, which are now lost, are attributed to him by the ancients:
*A dictionary of Attic words () in five books, dedicated to one Scymnus.
Photius
Photios I ( el, Φώτιος, ''Phōtios''; c. 810/820 – 6 February 893), also spelled PhotiusFr. Justin Taylor, essay "Canon Law in the Age of the Fathers" (published in Jordan Hite, T.O.R., & Daniel J. Ward, O.S.B., "Readings, Cases, Materia ...
speaks in high terms of its usefulness, and states that Aelius Dionysius himself made two editions of it, the second of which was a great improvement upon the first. Both editions appear to have been extant in the time of Photius. It seems to have been owing to this work that Aelius Dionysius was called sometimes by the surname of
Atticista.
*A history of music () in 36 books, with accounts of
citharoedi,
auletae, and poets of all kinds.
*, in 24 books.
*, in 22 books.
*A work in five books on what Plato had said about music in his .
*
Johannes Meursius
Johannes Meursius (van Meurs) (9 February 1579 – 20 September 1639) was a Dutch classical scholar and antiquary.
Biography
Meursius was born Johannes van Meurs at Loosduinen, near The Hague. He was extremely precocious, and at the age of s ...
was of opinion that this Dionysius was the author of the work , which was published by
Aldus Manutius
Aldus Pius Manutius (; it, Aldo Pio Manuzio; 6 February 1515) was an Italian printer and humanist who founded the Aldine Press. Manutius devoted the later part of his life to publishing and disseminating rare texts. His interest in and preserv ...
in
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
in 1496, in a volume titled ''Horti Adonidis''; but there is no evidence for this supposition.
Jean-Baptiste-Gaspard d'Ansse de Villoison
Jean-Baptiste-Gaspard d'Ansse (or Dannse) de Villoison (5 March 1750 (or 1753) – 25 April 1805) was a classical scholar born at Corbeil-sur-Seine, France.
He belonged to a noble family (De Ansso) of Spanish origin, and took his surname ...
, ''Prolegom. ad Hom. Il.'' p. xxix.
References
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aelius Dionysius
Atticists (grammarians)
Ancient Greek musicologists
2nd-century Romans
2nd-century Greek people
2nd-century writers
Ancient Halicarnassians
Ancient Greek rhetoricians
Dionysius