Tatian

Tatian the Assyrian born in Assyria about A.D. 120, belongs to the Syrian race. He was one of St. Justin’s disciples and belonged to the Roman community until Justin’s death. He received a Greek education, was scholarly and cultured, a philosopher and writer, and travelled as a Sophist from town to town lecturing. He was initiated into several mysteries and finally became a convert to Christianity (c. 165). He attended St. Justin’s course in Rome, and eventually opened a school himself. About 172 he left the Church and joined the Gnostic Encratites and returned to the East (Antioch, Cilicia, and Pisidia). He forbade marriage; believed in a series of aeons. Clement of Alexandria refuted him in his Stromata. Tatian died in the East - date unknown.

Patrick J. Hamell, Handbook of Patrology (Staten Island, NY: Alba House, 1968), 40–41.