an early Christian writer, flourished in the beginning of the second century as bishop of Hierapolis in Asia. According to Irenaeus, he was a hearer of John (probably the Evangelist), and a companion of Polycarp. A few fragments of An Explication of the Words of the Lord are the only specimens of his works that are extant. They are found scattered among the writings of Irenaeus, Eusebius, and other authors, and are valuable for the traditions they contain regarding the Scriptures of the New Testament. The best collection of them is contained in the first volume of Routh's Reliquiae Sacrae, 8vo, Oxford, 1846-48.