Dionysius
18. A slave of CICERO, and a person of considerable literary attainments, for which reason Cicero employed him to instruct his son Marcus, and was greatly attached to him. Cicero praises him in several passages for his attachment, learning, and honesty, and appears to have rewarded his virtues by emancipating him. At a later period, however, he complains of his want of gratitude, and at last he felt obliged to dismiss him, though he very much regretted the loss of so able a teacher. Subsequently, however, the parties became reconciled. (Cic. Att. 4.15, 17, 18, 5.3, 9.3, 12, 15, 6.1, 2, 7.3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 18, 26, 8.4, 5, 10, 10.2, 13.2, 33, ad Fam. 12.24, 30.) A son of this Dionysius is mentioned by Seneca. (Controv. 1.4.)
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.