Dionysius Exiguus - Origins

Origins

According to his friend and fellow-student, Cassiodorus, although by birth a "Scythian", Dionysius was in character a true Roman and a thorough Catholic, most learned in both tongues (by which he meant Greek and Latin), and an accomplished Scripturist. The use of such an ambiguous dated term as "Scythian" raises the suspicion that his contemporaries had difficulties classifying him, either from lack of knowledge about him personally or about his native land, Scythia Minor. By the 6th century, the term "Scythian" could mean an inhabitant of Scythia Minor, or simply someone from the north-east of Greco-Roman world, centered on the Mediterranean; the term had a wide-encompassing meaning, devoid of clear ethnic attributes. Even for the "Scythian monk" Joannes Maxentius, friend and companion of Dionysius, the two monks are "Scythian" by virtue of their geographical origin relative to Rome, just like Faustus of Riez is a "Gaul".

The dubious assertion, based on a single Syriac source, that the Eastern-Roman rebel general Vitalian, to whom Dionysius seems to have been related, was of Gothic extraction was the base for the labelling, without any further evidence, of all of the Scythian monks, Dionysius included, as "Goths". In Greek and Latin sources, Vitalian is sometimes labelled with the same ambiguous term "Scytha"; he is presented as commanding "Hunnic", "Gothic", "Scythian", "Bessian" soldiers, but this information says more about the general's military endeavours, and bears little relevance to elucidating his origins. Furthermore, since none of the Scythian monks expressed any kinship, by blood or spiritual, with the Arian Goths who at that time ruled Italy, a Gothic origin for Dionysius is questionable. Vitalian seems to have been of local Latinised Dacian-Getic (Thracian) stock, born in Scythia Minor or in Moesia; his father bore a Latin name, Patriciolus, while two of his sons had Thracian names and one a Gothic name. By the moment the Scythian Monks made their presence, the provinces from the Lower Danube, long since Latinised, were already a centre for the production of Latin-speaking theologians. Most likely Dionysius was also of local Thraco-Roman origin, like Vitalian's family to whom he was related, and to the rest of the Scythian Monks and other Thraco-Roman personalities of the era (Justin I, Justinian, Flavius Aetius, etc.).