bishop of Trica in Thessaly, better known by the romance he composed in his youth, entitled Ethiopic, in which are related the amours of Theagenes and Chariclea. Some say he was deposed by a synod because he would not consent to suppress this romance. The fable has a moral tendency, and particularly inculcates the virtue of chastity. As this was the first composition of the kind, he is commonly styled the Father of Romance. He was also a good Latin poet. Heliodorus lived in the fourth century. For an analysis of the Ethiopic, with some judicious remarks thereon, see Dunlop's History of Fiction.