Damianus

(Δαμιανός), of Ephesus, a celebrated rhetorician and contemporary of Philostratus, who visited him at Ephesus, and who has preserved a few particulars respecting his life. In his youth Damianus was a pupil of Adrianus and Aelius Aristeides, whom he afterwards followed as his models. He appears to have taught rhetoric in his native place, and his reputation as a rhetorician and sophist was so great, that even when he had arrived at an advanced age and had given up rhetoric, many persons flocked to Ephesus to have an opportunity of conversing with him. He belonged to a very illustrious family, and was possessed of great wealth, of which he made generous use, for he not only instructed gratis such young men as were unable to remunerate him, but he erected or restored at his own expense several useful and public institutions and buildings. He died at the age of seventy, and was buried in one of the suburbs of Ephesus. Works

It is not known whether he ever published any scientific treatise on rhetoric or any orations or declamations. Further Information

Philostr. Vit. Soph. 2.23; Suid. s. v. Δαμιανός; Eudocia, p. 130. [L.S]

(Δαμιανός), a celebrated saint and martyr, who was a physician by profession and lived in the third and fourth centuries after Christ. He is said to have been the brother of St. Cosmas, with whose name and life his own is commonly associated, and whose joint history appears to have been as follows. They were born in Arabia: their father's name is not known, their mother's was Theodora, and both are said to have been Christians. After receiving an excellent education, they chose the medical profession, as being that in which they thought they could most benefit their fellow men; and accordingly they constantly practised it gratuitously, thus earning for themselves the title of Ἀνάργυροι, by which they are constantly distinguished. They were at last put to death with the most cruel tortures, in company with several other Christians, during the persecution by Diocletian, A. D. 303-311. Justinian, in the sixth century, built a church in their honour at Constantinople, and another in Pamphylia, in consequence of his having been (as he supposed) cured of a dangerous illness through their intercession. [Cosmas.] [W.A.G]

[Heliodorus.]