e inaccuracy of transcribers, or the malice of heretics.
Some are of opinion, that as to the Old Testament, he only revised it,
by comparing different editions of the Septuagint: others contend, that
he corrected it upon the Hebrew text, being well versed in that
language. Certain, however, it is that St. Lucian's edition of the
scriptures was much esteemed, and was of great use to St. Jerom.[1][2]

{102}

S. Alexander, bishop of Alexandria, says that Lucian remained some years
separated from the catholic communion,[3] at Antioch, under three
successive bishops, namely, Domnus, Timaeus, and Cyril. If it was for too
much favoring Paul of Samosata, condemned at Antioch in the year 269, he
must have been deceived, for want of a sufficient penetration into the
impiety of that dissembling heretic. It is certain, at least, that he
died in the catholic communion; which also appears from a fragment of a
letter written by him to the church of Antioch, and still extant in the
Alexandrian Chronicle. Though a priest of Antioch, we find him at
Nicomedia, in the year 303, when Dioclesian first published his edicts
against the Christians. He there suffered a long imprisonment for the
faith; for the Paschal Chronicle quotes these words from a letter which
he wrote out of his dungeon to Antioch, "All the martyrs salute you. I
inform you that the pope Anthimus (bishop of Nicomedia) has finished his
course by martyrdom." This happened in 303. Yet Eusebius informs us,
that St. Lucian did not arrive himself at the crown of martyrdom till
after the death of St. Peter of Alexandria, in 311, so that he seems to
have continued nine years in prison. At length he was brought before
the governor, or, as the acts intimate, the emperor himself, for the
word[4] which Eusebius uses may imply either. On his trial, he presented
to the judge an excellent apology for the Christian faith. Being
remanded to prison, an order was given that no food should be allowed
him; but, when almost dead with hunger, dainty meats that had been
offered to idols were set before him, which he would not touch. It was
not in itself unlawful to eat of such meats, as St. Paul teaches, except
where it would give scandal to the weak, or when it was exacted as an
action of idolatrous superstition, as was the case here. Being brought a
second time before the tribunal, he would give no other answer to all
the questions put to him, but this: "I am a Christian." He repeated the
same