Note 352 — PHOTIUS BIBLIOTHECA OR MYRIOBIBLON⁠[6] (continued 3)

Heliodorus of Emesa in Syria, belonging to a family of the priests of the Sun, flourished in the third century A.D. This view is supported by the mention of the Blemmyes (first prominent in 250), traces of neo-Pythagorean influence, and the stress laid on Sun-worship. The ecclesiastical historian Socrates wrongly identifies him with a bishop of Tricca in the reign of Theodosius, the latter probably confused with Theodosius the father of the author of the Aethiopica. The standard work on the Greek romance-writers is E. Rohde, Der griechische Roman (1914); see also Blackwood’s Magazine, xliv. (1892). The whole work is preserved, and it would be difficult to understand the complicated plot from Photius’s abstract.