# The Passing of Peregrinus *A Greek-writing Syrian wit tells a friend how a famous old Cynic set himself alight beside the Olympic Games of AD 165. Then he tells him, at length and without charity, what sort of man the old Cynic had been: parricide (so he says), Christian prophet, beggar on the brethren's charity, mud-daubed ascetic, scold of emperors, and in the end a showman who died so that he might be talked about. Along the way Lucian dashes off the earliest pagan sketch of Christian communal life, more amused than hostile, and he admits that he invented a miracle at the pyre to see who would believe it. Someone did, within the hour.* > **What I read.** The whole letter twice: in A. M. Harmon's Loeb translation of 1936, with his notes and the standard section numbers, from [Roger Pearse's transcription at tertullian.org](https://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/lucian/peregrinus.htm), and in the Fowlers' 1905 Oxford translation, *The Death of Peregrine*, from [Project Gutenberg #47242](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/47242). Section numbers here (§11 and so on) are the standard ones Harmon prints. The Pearse transcription drops a few section markers (36, 39, 44), so for those passages I give ranges. Quotations are Harmon's unless marked "Fowler". I did not read the Greek, Costa's translation or the modern commentaries; what I say about scholarship comes from the sources linked. Related in this vault: - From the same Nils Glenn video: [[Book Summaries/Origen/Contra Celsum - Origen|Contra Celsum]] (Celsus, Lucian's contemporary, mocks the same lowly converts), [[Book Summaries/Pliny the Younger/Letters, Book 10 - Pliny the Younger|Letters, Book 10]] (a Roman governor's view of Christians fifty years earlier), [[Book Summaries/Seneca/Moral Letters to Lucilius - Seneca|Moral Letters to Lucilius]], [[Book Summaries/Seneca/De Clementia - Seneca|De Clementia]], [[Book Summaries/Aristotle/Politics - Aristotle|Politics]], [[Book Summaries/Thucydides/History of the Peloponnesian War - Thucydides|History of the Peloponnesian War]], [[Book Summaries/Holland, Tom/Dominion - Tom Holland|Dominion]] and [[Book Summaries/Nietzsche, Friedrich/The Antichrist - Friedrich Nietzsche|The Antichrist]]. - Seneca's Letter 70 and Letter 77, on suicide as a free exit, make a sober counterpoint to the theatre of §§21–25 here. ## 1. Book facts | | | |---|---| | Title | Greek *Peri tēs Peregrinou teleutēs* ("On the End of Peregrinus"); Latin *De Morte Peregrini*. English: *The Passing of Peregrinus* (Harmon, Loeb), *The Death of Peregrine* (Fowler), *The Death of Peregrinus* (Costa) | | Author | Lucian of Samosata (c. 125 – after 180), Greek-language satirist and rhetorician from Roman Syria | | Form | A letter to one Cronius ("Best wishes from Lucian to Cronius"), about 4,300 words in Harmon's English ([Perseus catalog](https://catalog.perseus.org/catalog/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0062.tlg042.opp-eng2)). Harmon notes that the greeting marks Cronius as a Platonist (n. 1). The life of Peregrinus is told inside it as a speech by an unnamed man at Elis, "clearly made by Lucian himself" (Harmon's introduction) | | Subject | Peregrinus of Parium, called Proteus (c. 95–165), a Cynic philosopher who had once been prominent among Christians in Palestine and who burned himself on a pyre at Harpina, about 20 stades (some 2½ miles) east of Olympia, the night after the Olympic Games of 165 (§35) | | Date | Lucian says he writes after the event and that these were his fourth Olympics (§35). Harmon dates the cremation to AD 165 from Eusebius' *Chronicle*, and the earlier Olympiads in the story to 153, 157 and 161, following Graindor's dating of Herodes Atticus' aqueduct (n. 22). The Fowlers' introduction dates the piece to 169 (vol. 1, Gutenberg #6327); I found no source for that year | | Greek text | Harmon's Loeb (1936) used rotographs of the manuscripts Γ (Vat. 90) and N, "except for the *Peregrinus*, now lacking in N" (Loeb vol. 5 prefatory note, via the [Lucian of Samosata Project's PDF](https://lucianofsamosata.info/downloads/loeb_lucian_vol5.pdf)). Standard critical text: M. D. Macleod, *Luciani Opera* (Oxford Classical Texts, 1972–87) ([Wikipedia list of works](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_works_by_Lucian)) | | Public-domain English | **H. W. and F. G. Fowler**, *The Works of Lucian of Samosata*, 4 vols. (Clarendon Press, 1905), vol. 4 pp. 79–94. Readable, but discreetly trimmed: the radish in §9 is gone and §17 is softened. **A. M. Harmon**, Loeb vol. 5 (1936), pp. 1–51, Greek and English; Pearse states his understanding that its copyright was not renewed, so it is public domain in the US (see his page) | | In print | Harmon, *Lucian V* (Loeb 302), Harvard University Press, ISBN 978-0-674-99333-4 (0-674-99333-0), 544 pp. ([Harvard](https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674993334)). C. D. N. Costa, *Lucian: Selected Dialogues* (Oxford World's Classics; 0-19-280593-2, pb 2009 978-0-19-955593-2), which includes "The Death of Peregrinus" at p. 74 ([Syndetics contents](https://secure.syndetics.com/index.aspx?isbn=0192805932/toc.html&client=sfpl)) | | Other English | Older selections include Paul Turner (*Satirical Sketches*, Penguin 1961), Lionel Casson (*Selected Satires of Lucian*, 1962) and B. P. Reardon (*Selected Works*, 1965) ([Authors' Calendar list](https://authorscalendar.info/lucian.htm)); I did not check which of them contain the *Peregrinus*. There is also a Greek school edition by C. Hadavas, *Lucian, On the Death of Peregrinus* (2014) ([Open Library](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL41417623W)); not seen | | Cover | [Open Library cover image for the Loeb volume](https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/5289311-L.jpg) | **Where it came up.** - Video: Nils Glenn, ["Our Understanding of Jesus Just Changed"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3WGPomiOJs). At [18:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3WGPomiOJs&t=1134s), right after Celsus, Glenn brings in Lucian, a "second-century stand-up comedian", who mocks Christians for believing they are all brothers, for worshipping "the crucified sage", and for sending orphans and old widows to wait outside the prison. All three come from §§12–13. "The crucified sage" is the Fowlers' wording, so Glenn was probably reading the 1905 translation. Later, at [27:14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3WGPomiOJs&t=1634s), he links the abolitionists' "Am I not a man and a brother?" to "the word Lucian laughed at" (as summarized in the vault note [[Video Summaries/Nils Glenn/Our Understanding of Jesus Just Changed]]). - Requested by Video Summaries on 2026-11-07, which listed it as "the con-man story" at 18:52. ## 2. Book resources **Reference and catalog pages** - Open Library: the Loeb volume, *Lucian* vol. 5, [OL7982783W](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL7982783W); [search for other editions](https://openlibrary.org/search?q=lucian+peregrinus). - Google Books: [search](https://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&q=Lucian+%22Peregrinus%22). - WorldCat: [search](https://search.worldcat.org/search?q=lucian+peregrinus). - Publisher: [Harvard University Press, *Lucian, Volume V*](https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674993334); the Loeb Classical Library's digital edition (loebclassics.com) is by subscription. - Perseus: [catalog entry for the work](https://atlas.perseus.tufts.edu/library/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0062.tlg042/), with Harmon's Greek and English and the Fowler translation. - [Wikipedia, *Passing of Peregrinus*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passing_of_Peregrinus); [Wikipedia, *Peregrinus Proteus*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peregrinus_Proteus); [Wikipedia, *Lucian*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucian). **Free (legal)** - Project Gutenberg: [*The Works of Lucian of Samosata*, vol. 4 (#47242)](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/47242), Fowler translation, "The Death of Peregrine". The other volumes are [#6327](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6327), [#6585](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6585) and [#6829](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6829). - Harmon's Loeb translation with notes (Greek omitted, some notes abbreviated): [Roger Pearse, tertullian.org](https://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/lucian/peregrinus.htm). Read here. - ToposText: [the Fowler translation with section numbers and place links](https://topostext.org/work/341). - Internet Archive, free to read: [the 1905 Fowler vol. 4](https://archive.org/details/worksoflucianofs04luci). Harmon's Loeb vol. 5 is borrowable (login): [1936 printing](https://archive.org/details/lucian0005amha), [1962 reprint](https://archive.org/details/lucian0005amha_g0o9). - Open Library borrow: through the same Internet Archive copies of the Loeb volume, via [OL7982783W](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL7982783W). - LibriVox: no recording of the *Peregrinus* found. LibriVox has other Lucian ([*Trips to the Moon*](https://librivox.org/trips-to-the-moon-by-lucian-of-samosata/), [*True History*](https://librivox.org/lucians-true-history-by-lucian-of-samosata/), the [*Dialogues of the Dead*](https://librivox.org/dialogues-of-the-dead-by-lucian-of-samosata/)). - Libby/OverDrive (checked at Los Angeles Public Library): nothing with the *Peregrinus*; only *True History* and *Trips to the Moon*. Availability depends on your library. - Hoopla: not checked; [search Hoopla](https://www.hoopladigital.com/search?q=lucian). **Paid** - Amazon print: [Harmon, *Lucian V*, Loeb 302](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0674993330); [Costa, *Selected Dialogues*, OWC](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0199555931). - Kindle: the Fowler *Complete Works* is sold in many cheap ebook editions, and the OWC Costa volume has an ebook; [Kindle search](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=lucian+works+fowler&i=digital-text). Not checked edition by edition. - Audible: no audiobook of the *Peregrinus* found. Audible's Lucian titles are other works, such as [*A True Story*](https://www.audible.com/pd/A-True-Story-Audiobook/B0DK9Y3J3Z) and [*How to Write History*](https://www.audible.com/pd/How-to-Write-History-Audiobook/B0HCTGG737) (found by web search; Audible's own search blocked my checks). ## 3. Author biography Almost everything known about Lucian comes from his own writings, and he is not a reliable witness about himself. No contemporary mentions him, and Philostratus leaves him out of the *Lives of the Sophists* ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucian), citing Richter and Russell). He was born around 125 at Samosata on the Euphrates. Samosata had been the capital of Commagene until Rome annexed it in 72, and his first language was probably Syriac. In *The Dream* he says his family apprenticed him to an uncle who was a sculptor. He broke a slab, was beaten, ran away, and dreamed that Culture won him from Statuary. Scholars now read that story as a set piece rather than a memoir. He learned Greek rhetoric in Ionia, practised briefly as an advocate, and became a touring lecturer in Greece, Italy and Gaul. He was in Antioch in 162 or 163, and around 165, the year of this letter, he settled in Athens with his parents. There he wrote most of his surviving work, more than eighty pieces, most of it comic dialogue modelled on the Old Comedy and on Menippus the Cynic ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucian)). Late in life he took a salaried post in Egypt, a step he defends in his *Apology* ([Harvard University Press](https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674993334)). Nothing is known of his death. He mocked bogus philosophers rather than philosophy, and frauds in religion as much as religion itself. The *Peregrinus* belongs with *Alexander the False Prophet* (on the snake-oracle of Abonoteichus) and with his admiring life of the gentle Cynic *Demonax*. Demonax appears as a foil to Peregrinus in that work, and Harmon notes that Lucian knew people who knew Peregrinus, Demonax among them (introduction). Paul Turner points out that the *Cynicus* defends Cynicism while this letter savages a Cynic ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucian)). Later Christian readers counted his remarks here, along with the forged *Philopatris*, against him. The Byzantine *Suda* consigns his soul to hell for this very letter, yet Byzantine schools taught him for his style. Erasmus's *Praise of Folly* shows his influence, and in 1791 Wieland built a novel on Peregrinus, *Geheime Geschichte des Philosophen Peregrinus Proteus* ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucian); [Wikipedia, *Christoph Martin Wieland*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christoph_Martin_Wieland)). ## 4. Author interviews and talks Lucian gave no interviews. His nearest thing to one is this letter, in which he reports his own heckling and admits to his own hoax. Modern talks and discussions of the work: - **Doug Metzger, *Literature and History*, [Episode 87, "Lucian of Samosata"](https://literatureandhistory.com/episode-087-lucian-of-samosata/)** (2021; transcript on the page). About ten minutes go through *The Passing of Peregrinus* as "a fantastic and representative introduction to Lucian", including his remarks on Christians. Also on [Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lucian-of-samosata/id1083737218?i=1000520973220). - **Peter Adamson, *History of Philosophy without any gaps*, [Episode 84, "Silver Tongues in Golden Mouths"](https://historyofphilosophy.net/podcast/later-antiquity/late-antiquity/rhetoric)** (10 June 2012). Rhetoric and philosophy under the Empire, with a short section on Lucian's satire of philosophers. In the page's comments Adamson grants that Lucian "wasn't influential, at least not on philosophers". - **Jason König, ["The Cynic and Christian Lives of Lucian's *Peregrinus*"](https://www.academia.edu/2399414/The_Cynic_and_Christian_Lives_of_Lucian_s_Peregrinus)**, in B. McGing and J. Mossman (eds.), *The Limits of Ancient Biography* (Classical Press of Wales 2006), pp. 227–54 ([St Andrews record](https://research-portal.st-andrews.ac.uk/en/publications/the-cynic-and-christian-lives-of-lucians-peregrinus/)). A print study of how the letter plays Cynic and Christian life-writing against each other. Not read. - **British Library, ["The earliest manuscript of Lucian"](https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-earliest-manuscript-of-lucian)**, the copy made for Arethas of Caesarea, who annotated it. Adamson pointed to it; I did not open the page. ## 5. Summary ### Thesis Peregrinus "never fixed his gaze on the verities, but always did and said everything with a view to glory and the praise of the multitude, even to the extent of leaping into fire, when he was sure not to enjoy the praise because he could not hear it" (§42). Lucian's point is not that suicide is wicked or Cynicism foolish. It is that a hunger for notice can wear any costume, Christian prophet or naked ascetic or martyr of philosophy, and that crowds will supply the miracles. His one sober moral comes in §§23–24: an example of fearlessness in the face of death teaches the criminal as readily as the good man. ### Outline (section by section) **Frame: the news (§§1–2).** Peregrinus, who liked to be called Proteus after Homer's shape-shifting sea-god, "has turned into fire". Unlike Empedocles, who at least tried to vanish unseen into Etna, he picked the most crowded festival in Greece. Lucian pictures Cronius laughing; he laughed too, on the spot, and was nearly torn apart by the Cynics "as Actaeon was by his dogs". **At Elis: Theagenes' panegyric (§§3–6).** In the gymnasium at Elis a Cynic, Theagenes of Patras, bellows that Proteus was imprisoned in Syria, gave his city 5,000 talents and was banished from Rome. He belongs with Heracles, Asclepius, Dionysus and Empedocles, all deified by fire, and ranks above Diogenes, Antisthenes and Socrates. The world has seen two masterpieces, the Olympian Zeus of Phidias and Proteus, made by Nature. Theagenes weeps and tears his hair, "taking care not to pull very hard". **The anonymous speaker: "the laughter of Democritus" (§§7–8).** Another man (Harmon: "Lucian himself, no doubt", n. 9) mounts the platform, laughing, and offers the true story, gathered from Peregrinus' fellow citizens. **Youth and the father (§§9–10).** Caught in adultery in Armenia, he escaped a beating by jumping off the roof "with a radish stopping his vent" (the Fowlers leave the radish out). He paid 3,000 drachmas to hush up the seduction of a boy. Then he strangled his father, "unable to tolerate his living beyond sixty years", and went into self-imposed exile. **Among the Christians (§§11–13).** In Palestine he "learned the wondrous lore of the Christians" from their priests and scribes, and soon he was "prophet, cult-leader, head of the synagogue, and everything". He interpreted their books, wrote many himself, and was revered "as a god… next after that other… the man who was crucified in Palestine because he introduced this new cult". When he was jailed the Christians tried everything to free him. Old widows and orphans waited at the prison from dawn, officials bribed their way in to sleep beside him, meals were brought and scripture read, and he was hailed as "the new Socrates". Delegates came from the cities of Asia at the churches' common expense, and money poured in. The famous diagnosis follows. They believe they are immortal, so they despise death and "willingly give themselves into custody". Their first lawgiver persuaded them "that they are all brothers" once they deny the Greek gods and worship "that crucified sophist" (Fowler: "the crucified sage"). They hold everything in common without evidence, so any trickster among them "quickly acquires sudden wealth by imposing upon simple folk". **Release and the inheritance (§§14–15).** A philosophically minded governor of Syria saw that he wanted martyrdom and let him go without even a scourging. At home in Parium the murder charge was "still at fever heat". Arriving in full Cynic dress (long hair, dirty cloak, wallet and staff), he gave his estate to the city, worth about 15 talents in land (the whole inheritance perhaps 30, not 5,000). The crowd hailed "the one and only philosopher", and anyone who mentioned the murder was stoned. **Expelled by the Christians; Egypt (§§16–17).** He lived on Christian charity until "he was seen, I think, eating some of the food that is forbidden them" (Harmon guesses pagan sacrificial meat, n. 16). Cut off, he petitioned the emperor to get his property back, and lost when Parium sent envoys. In Egypt he trained under the Cynic Agathobulus: half his head shaved, his face smeared with mud, public masturbation as a show of "indifference", and floggings with a fennel stalk. **Rome (§18).** He reviled everyone, "in particular the Emperor" (Antoninus Pius, n. 19), knowing him to be gentle. The city prefect finally expelled him, which only made him famous as a philosopher banished for free speech, like Musonius, Dio and Epictetus. **Greece and Herodes' water (§§19–20).** At Olympia he urged the Greeks to rise against Rome. He attacked the benefactor who had piped water into the sanctuary (Herodes Atticus, n. 21), saying spectators ought to bear their thirst even if they died of it, and he said so "while he drank that same water". Nearly stoned, he fled to the altar of Zeus. At the next Olympiad he gave a speech, four years in the writing, praising the aqueduct. Ignored at last and out of novelties, he announced at the following games that he would burn himself at the next. **Against the pyre (§§21–25).** A man should await death and not run from life, says the speaker. If Peregrinus must go, there are myriad quieter ways, or a wooded mountain with one friend to play Philoctetes. Instead he means to roast himself at the festival like Herostratus, who burned the temple of Artemis to be famous. His claim to teach contempt of death would embolden criminals (§23). His disciples will not follow him into the fire, Theagenes least of all (§24). Heracles burned because the Centaur's poison was killing him. The Brahmans, as Onesicritus saw with Calanus, at least sit motionless in the flames, whereas Peregrinus has dug a pit so that he cannot jump out half-done (§25). **Phoenix, oracles and a cult foretold (§§26–30).** He has had dreams that Zeus forbids pollution of the sanctuary, but his Cynics will not let him back out (§26). He now calls himself Phoenix, quotes old oracles that he will become "a guardian spirit of the night", and expects altars and golden statues. Fools will claim cures of quartan fever, and there will be priests with whips and branding irons and a torchlit night rite at the pyre (§§27–28). Theagenes quotes a Sibylline oracle in his honour (§29). The speaker answers with a mock oracle of Bacis: the other jackals should follow the wolf into the fire, and any who shirk should be stoned, especially the one with "thrice five talents… in the lovely city of Patras" (§30). **Uproar (§31).** The crowd shouts "Let them be burned right now!" Theagenes comes back raging, and Lucian goes off to watch the athletes being matched. **At Olympia: his own funeral oration (§§32–34).** After the heralds' contest Peregrinus arrives with a huge escort and speaks of his life and trials. He wants "to put a tip of gold on a golden bow", that is, to die like Heracles "and be commingled with the ether", so that all men "play Philoctetes" to him. The softer listeners cry "Preserve your life for the Greeks!" The tougher ones shout "Carry out your purpose!", and he turns paler still and trembles, having hoped to be held back. Men going to the cross, Lucian observes, draw bigger crowds (§34). **The cremation at Harpina (§§35–37).** The games end, "the most splendid… that I have seen", his fourth. After several postponements Peregrinus names a night. At moonrise, about 20 stades from Olympia, he stands by a pit some six feet deep stacked with pine torchwood. The Cynics light it, Theagenes among them with a torch. He sets aside wallet, cloak and his Heracles club, stands in a filthy shirt, throws incense on the fire, turns to the south and says, "Spirits of my mother and my father, receive me with favour", and leaps in. The mention of his father makes Lucian laugh out loud. When he asks the silent Cynics whether they are waiting to be painted like Socrates' friends in prison, they reach for their sticks, and he threatens to throw a few of them in after their master (§37). **The manufactured miracle (§§38–41).** Walking back, Lucian meets latecomers who had heard that Peregrinus would greet the rising sun "as… the Brahmans do". For the dullards he adds an earthquake and a vulture rising from the flames crying "I am through with the earth; to Olympus I fare", and they ask which way it flew. Back at Olympia a grey-bearded man of grave aspect swears he has seen Peregrinus in white, crowned with wild olive, in the Portico of the Seven Voices, "and on top of it all, he put the vulture", which Lucian "had just previously let… fly to ridicule fools". Statues will follow, along with bees and crickets at the spot, as at Hesiod's tomb. Peregrinus had sent letters to the cities, carried by followers he styled "messengers from the dead" and "underworld couriers" (§41). **Verdict (§42).** Love of glory drove him to the one place where he could not hear the applause. **Two last anecdotes (§§43–45).** On a voyage from the Troad, the man "thought to be superior to death" wailed among the women in a storm. Nine days before the end, feverish from overeating, he begged the physician Alexander for cold water. Told that death had come to his door unasked, he replied: "But that way would not be so notable, being common to all men" (§§43–44). Lucian also saw him having salve put on his sore eyes, "as if a man about to go up to the cross should nurse the bruise on his finger" (§45). Democritus himself would have run out of laughter, and Cronius may now have his. ### Key ideas - **Fame as the master motive.** Every phase of the career is read as a bid for attention, including the last. Harmon notes that Zeller, Bernays, Croiset and Wilamowitz preferred an earnest seeker; he thinks Lucian "perhaps… not so far wrong after all" (introduction). - **The earliest outsider's sketch of a church at work.** Within the satire are the brotherhood, shared property, care for prisoners, inter-city delegations and contempt for death. Lucian mocks their credulity, but his details of their mutual aid are the ones Glenn reads as a revealing compliment. - **How a cult is made.** Lucian forecasts the shrine, oracles and healings (§§27–28), then plants a miracle and watches it come back as eyewitness testimony (§§39–40). He offers it as a lesson on testimony. - **Cynicism, true and false.** The Elis speaker condemns the costume ("wallet, staff, and mantle; all this is safe and easy", §24), not the creed. Lucian's *Demonax* is the positive pole. - **Dying well as theatre.** Heracles, Empedocles, Calanus, Socrates and the cross are invoked again and again; the letter is a study in borrowed deaths. - **The criminal objection.** Teaching contempt for death does not choose its pupils (§23). ## 6. Fact-check | Claim | Verdict | Evidence | |---|---|---| | Lucian mocks Christians for believing they are all brothers and for worshipping "the crucified sage", and has orphans and old widows waiting at the prison (Glenn, 18:54) | **Supported** | §§12–13; "worship the crucified sage" is the Fowler wording, Harmon has "that crucified sophist" ([Gutenberg #47242](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/47242); [Harmon/Pearse](https://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/lucian/peregrinus.htm)) | | The piece is "the con-man story" (Video Summaries) | **Supported as Lucian's framing** | Lucian portrays a charlatan (§§13, 42), but Aulus Gellius, who visited him in Athens, calls Peregrinus "a man of dignity and fortitude" and quotes his ethics with approval ([*Attic Nights* 12.11, Rolfe, LacusCurtius](https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Gellius/12*.html)) | | Peregrinus burned himself at Olympia in AD 165 | **Supported (with a nuance)** | Eusebius' *Chronicle* gives 165 (Harmon n. 2, n. 22). Ammianus (29.1.39) says he died with "the whole of Greece" looking on ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peregrinus_Proteus)). Athenagoras (*Legatio* 26, c. 177) says he "threw himself into the fire near Olympia" ([New Advent](https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0205.htm)). Lucian's own account puts the pyre at Harpina, about 20 stades away, after the games had ended (§35), not in the sanctuary during the festival | | Tertullian also knew of the burning | **Supported** | *Ad Martyras* 4: "Peregrinus, who not long ago threw himself on the funeral pile" ([New Advent](https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0323.htm)) | | A statue of Proteus at Parium gave oracles, as Lucian predicted for his cult (§§27–28) | **Supported** | Athenagoras, *Legatio* 26: "that of Proteus is likewise said to utter oracles" ([New Advent](https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0205.htm); Harmon n. 27) | | Peregrinus strangled his father | **Unverified (hostile hearsay)** | Only the speaker of §10 says so, presenting it as rumour already known to his audience. Lucian's laughter at the invocation of his "father" (§37) is part of the joke. No independent source; Gellius' portrait points the other way | | He was "prophet, cult-leader, head of the synagogue" among the Christians and wrote books for them | **Disputed** | The titles mix Jewish and Christian terms, and scholars differ on how literally to take them. Bagnani (*Historia* 4, 1955) placed him in a Jewish-Christian ("Essene-Ebionite") church at Pella; Edwards (*Historia* 38, 1989) reads the details as satire's "characteristic and probable" rather than fact ([Wikipedia, *Peregrinus Proteus*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peregrinus_Proteus); [Wikipedia, *Passing of Peregrinus*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passing_of_Peregrinus); [UVM reading list](https://www.uvm.edu/~bsaylor/rome/pc2016.html)). No Christian source mentions Peregrinus as a Christian leader | | The "first lawgiver" who told Christians they are all brothers is Jesus | **Supported (Harmon), disputed by some** | Harmon: "so obviously to Christ himself that one is at a loss to understand why Paul, let alone Moses, should have been suggested" (n. 12) | | Peregrinus abused Herodes Atticus, builder of the water supply at Olympia | **Supported** | Philostratus, *Lives of the Sophists* 2.1.33, records Proteus berating Herodes (Harmon n. 21). Herodes' aqueduct and nymphaeum at Olympia are dated c. 153 by Graindor (Harmon n. 22). The Philostratus passage was not read here | | The Olympiads in the story are 153, 157, 161 and 165 | **Supported (modern reconstruction)** | Harmon n. 22, following Graindor. Wikipedia gives "either 153 or 157" for the Herodes episode and Bagnani's timeline 153/157/165 ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peregrinus_Proteus)) | | An emperor "mild and gentle" (Antoninus Pius) let him rail, and the city prefect expelled him (§18) | **Unverified** | Harmon identifies the emperor (n. 19); no independent record of the expulsion was found | | He urged the Greeks to revolt against Rome (§19) | **Unverified (plausible context)** | The *Historia Augusta* life of Antoninus Pius (§5) notes a rising in Achaea (Harmon n. 20); no source ties Peregrinus to it | | Calanus burned himself before Alexander, and Brahmans burn sitting still (§25, from Onesicritus) | **Supported (Calanus); unverified (general Brahman practice)** | Harmon's introduction cites Calanus at Susa before Alexander and Zarmarus at Athens before Augustus as precedents Peregrinus followed; the ancient historians' accounts were not read here ([Wikipedia, *Calanus*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calanus); [Wikipedia, *Zarmanochegas*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zarmanochegas)) | | A man burned the temple of Artemis at Ephesus to become famous (§22) | **Supported** | Herostratus, 356 BC; the Ephesians banned his name, which is why Lucian, Cicero and Plutarch leave it out (Harmon n. 26; [Wikipedia, *Herostratus*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herostratus)) | | Lucian witnessed the cremation and invented the vulture (§§35–40) | **Unverified (self-report)** | No other witness. Harmon accepts his presence, and the hoax is Lucian's own confession | | "Messengers from the dead" echo Ignatius' "ambassador of God" | **Unverified (scholarly suggestion)** | Harmon (n. 37, after Lightfoot) thinks the coincidence shows Peregrinus, not Lucian, knew Ignatius' letters | | Theagenes is the Cynic whose death in Rome Galen describes | **Unverified** | Bernays' identification, accepted by Harmon as "very likely" (n. 7); Galen not checked | | Wikipedia: Peregrinus, "sick with fever", feared death on the ship and said "that way would bring less renown" | **Disputed (conflation)** | These are two separate episodes in §43: wailing in a storm at sea, and a fever nine days before his death, when he said this to the physician Alexander ([Wikipedia, *Passing of Peregrinus*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passing_of_Peregrinus) vs. the text) | | Wikipedia: Lucian is a speaker in "Diderot's dialogue *Peregrinus Proteus* (1791)" | **Disputed (probably misattributed)** | The 1791 work of that name is Wieland's novel *Geheime Geschichte des Philosophen Peregrinus Proteus*, as Wikipedia's own articles on Wieland and Weimar Classicism list it ([Wikipedia, *Wieland*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christoph_Martin_Wieland); [Wikipedia, *Weimar Classicism*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weimar_Classicism)). I found no Diderot work of that title | | The piece was written in 169 (Fowler introduction) | **Unverified** | Lucian writes soon after the event; I found no basis for the specific year | ## 7. Citations and references **Sources and figures the letter engages** (with sections) - Homer: Proteus (*Odyssey* 4, §1); Nestor (*Iliad* 14.1, §31); Pandarus' gold-tipped bow (*Iliad* 4.111, behind §33). - Philosophers: Empedocles (§§1, 4), Diogenes and Antisthenes (§5), Crates (§15), Socrates (§§5, 12, 37), Heraclitus and Democritus (§§7, 45), Musonius, Dio and Epictetus (§18), the Cynic Agathobulus (§17). - Myth and cult: Heracles, Philoctetes and Mount Oeta (§§4, 21, 24–25, 33), Asclepius and Dionysus (§4), Actaeon and Pentheus (§2), the phoenix (§27), Aeacus (§45), Hesiod's tomb and its crows (§41). - Prophecy: the Sibyl (§29), Bacis (§30). - History: Phidias' Zeus (§6), Polyclitus' Canon (§9), the bull of Phalaris (§21), Herostratus (§22), Onesicritus and Calanus (§25), Herodes Atticus (§19, unnamed). - Ancient testimonia on Peregrinus outside Lucian: Aulus Gellius 8.3 and 12.11; Philostratus, *Lives of the Sophists* 2.1.33; Athenagoras, *Legatio* 26; Tatian, *Oratio* 25; Tertullian, *Ad Martyras* 4; Ammianus Marcellinus 29.1.39; Eusebius, *Chronicle* (as listed by Harmon n. 2; I read Gellius 12.11, Athenagoras and Tertullian). **Secondary sources** - A. M. Harmon, introduction and notes to *Lucian* vol. 5 (Loeb 1936). Read via Pearse. - H. W. and F. G. Fowler, introduction to *The Works of Lucian of Samosata* vol. 1 (1905). Read via Gutenberg. - Gilbert Bagnani, "Peregrinus Proteus and the Christians", *Historia* 4 (1955) 107–112. Cited via Wikipedia. - Mark J. Edwards, "Satire and Verisimilitude: Christianity in Lucian's *Peregrinus*", *Historia* 38 (1989) 89–98. Cited via Wikipedia and the UVM list. - Jason König, "The Cynic and Christian Lives of Lucian's *Peregrinus*" (2006). Not read. - Jacob Bernays, *Lucian und die Kyniker* (1879); Paul Graindor, *Hérode Atticus et sa famille* (1930); Roger Pack, "The 'Volatilization' of Peregrinus Proteus", *AJPh* 67 (1946); Dana Fields, "The Reflections of Satire: Lucian and Peregrinus", *TAPhA* 143 (2013); C. P. Jones, *Culture and Society in Lucian* (1986). Named in Harmon or the UVM list; not read. **Links used in this note** - https://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/lucian/peregrinus.htm - https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/47242 ; https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6327 ; https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6585 ; https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6829 - https://topostext.org/work/341 ; https://atlas.perseus.tufts.edu/library/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0062.tlg042/ ; https://catalog.perseus.org/catalog/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0062.tlg042.opp-eng2 - https://archive.org/details/worksoflucianofs04luci ; https://archive.org/details/lucian0005amha ; https://archive.org/details/lucian0005amha_g0o9 - https://lucianofsamosata.info/downloads/loeb_lucian_vol5.pdf - https://openlibrary.org/works/OL7982783W ; https://openlibrary.org/works/OL41417623W ; https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/5289311-L.jpg - https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674993334 ; https://secure.syndetics.com/index.aspx?isbn=0192805932/toc.html&client=sfpl ; https://authorscalendar.info/lucian.htm - https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Gellius/12*.html ; https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0205.htm ; https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0323.htm - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passing_of_Peregrinus ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peregrinus_Proteus ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucian ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_works_by_Lucian ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christoph_Martin_Wieland ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weimar_Classicism ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calanus ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zarmanochegas ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herostratus - https://www.uvm.edu/~bsaylor/rome/pc2016.html ; https://www.academia.edu/2399414/The_Cynic_and_Christian_Lives_of_Lucian_s_Peregrinus ; https://research-portal.st-andrews.ac.uk/en/publications/the-cynic-and-christian-lives-of-lucians-peregrinus/ - https://literatureandhistory.com/episode-087-lucian-of-samosata/ ; https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lucian-of-samosata/id1083737218?i=1000520973220 ; https://historyofphilosophy.net/podcast/later-antiquity/late-antiquity/rhetoric ; https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-earliest-manuscript-of-lucian - https://librivox.org/trips-to-the-moon-by-lucian-of-samosata/ ; https://librivox.org/lucians-true-history-by-lucian-of-samosata/ ; https://librivox.org/dialogues-of-the-dead-by-lucian-of-samosata/ - https://www.amazon.com/dp/0674993330 ; https://www.amazon.com/dp/0199555931 ; https://www.audible.com/pd/A-True-Story-Audiobook/B0DK9Y3J3Z ; https://www.audible.com/pd/How-to-Write-History-Audiobook/B0HCTGG737 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3WGPomiOJs