Skip to content
Wellsprings
Hyginus, Bishop of Rome

Hyginus, Bishop of Rome

?–140 CE · Athens

Hyginus served as the ninth bishop of Rome around 136-140, during the reign of Antoninus Pius. The Liber Pontificalis describes him as a Greek from Athens, possibly a former philosopher, but this is a late and doubtful tradition. His pontificate coincided with the presence in Rome of influential Gnostic teachers such as Valentinus and Cerdo, making his era significant for the early Church's confrontation with diverse and competing theologies. Little else can be said with confidence; the administrative ordinances later attributed to him are unhistorical. His importance lies in situating the Roman church amid the doctrinal ferment of the mid-second century. He is traditionally counted among the early popes.

See Hyginus, Bishop of Rome’s journey on the map →

Life journeyclick any stop, or use ←/→Trace on the map →

Stop 0 of 2Birthplace (Per Tradition)

AthensAttica (Greece)

We know they were here, but the specifics of what they did at this stop aren’t recorded yet in our corpus.

About Athens

Athens, the capital of Greece since 1834, was the leading intellectual centre of the classical Greek world. Socrates taught there, and four major philosophical schools took root in the city: Plato's Academy, founded around 387 BCE, Aristotle's Lyceum, the Stoa of Zeno, and Epicurus' Garden. Under Hellenistic and Roman rule Athens remained a place of study that drew students from across the empire; in the 4th century CE the Christian writers Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nazianzus studied there together, while Neoplatonist teachers kept lecturing. Emperor Justinian's ban on pagan teaching of philosophy in 529 is generally taken to mark the end of the city's ancient history.

In Athens at the same time

Quadratus of Athens

Across the traditions, in Athens at the same time

See other sages who lived in Athens→

In the same place & time

Sages whose lives overlapped with Hyginus, Bishop of Rome’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.

The world in their lifetime

Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Hyginus, Bishop of Rome’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

Works

No works attributed in the corpus yet.