Dorotheus
8. Of TYRE.
Confusion with other figures named Dorotheus
He has been frequently confounded with Dorotheus, a presbyter of Antioch in the reign of Diocletian, who is spoken of by Eusebius. (H. E. 7.32.) He must further be distinguished from another Dorotheus, who was likewise a contemporary of Diocletian. (Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 8.1, 6.)
Life
Our Dorotheus is said to have flourished about A. D. 303, to have suffered much from the persecutions of Diocletian, and to have been sent into exile. When this persecution ceased, he returned to his see, in which he seems to have remained till the time of the emperor Julian, by whose emissaries he was seized and put to death, at the age of 107 years. This account, however, is not found in any of his contemporaries, and occurs only in an anonymous writer who lived after the sixth century of our era, and from whom it was incorporated in the Martyrologia.
Works
Dorotheus is further said to have written several theological works.
Synopsis de Vita et Morte Prophetarum, Apostolorum et Discipulorum Domini.
We still possess, under his name, a Synopsis de Vita et Morte Prophetarum, Apostolorum et Discipulorum Domini.
It is an ill-digested mass of fabulous accounts, though it contains a few things also which are of importance in ecclesiastical history. (Cave, Hist. Lit. i. p. 115, &c.)
Editions
Latin Editions
This is printed in Latin in the third vol. of the Biblioth. Patrum.
Greek Editions
A specimen of the Greek original, with a Latin translation, is given by Cave (Hist. Lit. i. p. 115, &c.), and the whole was edited by Fabricius, at the end of his Monumenta Variorum de Mosis, Prophetarum et Apostolorum Vita, 1714, 8vo.
Other ecclesiastics named Dorotheus
There are a few other ecclesiastics of this name, concerning whom little or nothing is known. A list of them is given by Fabricius. (Bibl. Graec. vii. p. 452, note p.)
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.