ANATOLIUS, bishop of LAODICEA. — Flourished in the second half of the 3rd century. A native of Alexandria, he distinguished himself there for his extensive and profound literary and scientific culture. A Christian teacher in the Aristotelian school of Alexandria, he enjoyed considerable influence among his fellow citizens. During the siege placed by the Romans on the port district of Bruchium, he succeeded in saving a large part of the inhabitants (this was probably the siege of 263 A.D.). He then went to Palestine, where he was consecrated bishop by the bishop of Caesarea and destined to succeed him. However, while traveling in 268 to the new Council of Antioch against Paul of Samosata, he happened to be in Laodicea, in Syria, where his countryman and friend Bishop Eusebius had recently died, and the inhabitants of that city forced him to remain among them as their bishop. We do not know when he died.
Eusebius, who provides all these details (*Hist. eccl.*, VI, 32, 16-21), attributes to him a Paschal computation and ten books on arithmetic. Fragments of these remain, which seem authentic (PG 10, 232-36; I. L. Heiberg, *Anatolius sur les dix premiers nombres*, Mâcon 1901); a *Liber Anatolii de ratione paschali*, edited in 1634 by Boucher and later by Migne (PG 10, 209), has been alternately attributed to him and denied; it seems that at least the core may be his, subsequently updated and modified.
Antonio Ferrúa