Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Anatolius 4.
ANATO'LIUS (Ανατόλιος), Bishop of Laodicea (a. d. 270), was an Alexandrian by birth. Eusebius ranks him first among the men of his age, in literature, philosophy, and science, and states, that the Alexandrians urged him to open a school of Aristotelian philosophy. (H.E. vii. 32.) He was of great service to the Alexandrians when they were besieged by the Romans, a. d. 2G2. From Alexandria he went into Syria. At Caesarea he was ordained by Theotechnus, who destined him to be his successor in the bishopric, the duties of which he discharged for a short time as the vicar of Theotechnus. Afterwards, while proceeding to attend a council at Antioch, he was detained by the people of Laodicea, and became their bishop. Of his subsequent life nothing is known ; but by some he is said to have suffered martyrdom. He wrote a work on the chronology of Easter, a large fragment of which is preserved by Eusebius. (l.c.) The work exists in a Laatin translation, which some ascribe to Rufinus, under the title of "Volumen de Paschate or "Canones Paschales," and which was published by Aegidius Bucherius in his Doctrina Temporum, Antverp., 1634. He also wrote a treatise on Arithmetic, in ten books (Hieron, de Vir. Illustr., c. 79. de Vir. Illust. c. 73), of which some fragments are preserved in the Θεολογούμενα τῆς Ἀριθμετικῆς Some fragments of his mathematical works are printed in Fabric. Bib. Graec. iii. p. 4G2. [P. S.]