ANATOLIO, bishop of LAODICEA. — Flourished in the second half of the 3rd century. A native of Alexandria, he distinguished himself there through 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 laid by the Romans against the port district of the Bruchium, he succeeded in saving a large part of the inhabitants (it was probably the siege of A.D. 263). He later went to Palestine, where the bishop of Caesarea consecrated him bishop and designated him as his successor. But when he subsequently went in 268 to the new Council of Antioch against Paul of Samosata, he came to Laodicea in Syria, where the bishop Eusebius, his compatriot and friend, had meanwhile died; the inhabitants of that city compelled him to remain among them as their bishop. We do not know when he died.
Eusebius, who gives us all this information (Hist. eccl., VI, 32, 16-21), attributes to him a paschal computation and ten books on arithmetic. Of these, fragments remain that seem authentic (PG 10, 232-36; I. L. Heiberg, Anatolius sur les dix premiers nombres, Nâcon 1901); a Liber Anatolii de ratione paschali, published in 1634 by Bouchier and subsequently by Migne (PG 10, 209), has at times been attributed to him and at times denied him; it seems that at least its underlying substance may be his, subsequently brought up to date and modified.