The Apologists · AD 130–180 · External witness
Crescens the Cynic
fl. c. 165 (death unrecorded) · Cynic philosopher · Denouncer of Justin · Rome
External witness
Who Crescens the Cynic was
A Cynic philosopher at Rome whom Justin publicly bested in debate and accused of attacking Christians he had never troubled to understand — “a lover of bravado, not of wisdom.” Justin predicted in his Second Apology that Crescens would try to destroy him; Tatian, Justin’s pupil, states flatly that Crescens engineered his master’s death. He is thus the named human agent behind the church’s greatest apologist’s martyrdom — a rival intellectual, not a magistrate, using the courts as his weapon.
Also listed in non-christian witnesses.
Common questions
When was Crescens active?
Crescens the Cynic is dated fl. c. 165 (death unrecorded) in the archive, which places Crescens in the Apologists (AD 130–180). The dating is traditional and approximate; the archive marks it as uncertain rather than fixing a year the sources do not give.
Which early sources mention Crescens?
Crescens the Cynic is named in 3 primary-source passages catalogued here, drawn from Justin Martyr, Tatian the Assyrian and Eusebius of Caesarea. Every passage is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
Where was Crescens from?
The archive associates Crescens the Cynic with Rome.
Who were Crescens’ contemporaries?
The archive links Crescens the Cynic to 3 other figures, including Justin Martyr, Tatian the Assyrian and Junius Rusticus. Each connection is drawn from a source that places them together, not from inference.
Primary-source mentions (3)
Every passage below is quoted from a named public-domain translation, earliest first.
Second Apology 3 (Justin names his denouncer in advance)
c. AD 152I too, therefore, expect to be plotted against by some one of those I have named, and Crescens, that lover of bravado and boasting.Justin Martyr · Second Apology 3 · source text
Address to the Greeks 19
c. AD 170Crescens, who made his nest in the great city, surpassed all in his unnatural vice… and he who advised others to despise death was himself so afraid of it that he endeavoured to inflict it on Justin, and on me, as an evil, because by preaching the truth he convicted the philosophers.Tatian the Assyrian · source text
Ecclesiastical History IV.16 (the plot recounted from Tatian)
c. AD 325Justin was crowned with divine martyrdom in consequence of a plot laid against him by Crescens, a philosopher who emulated the life and manners of the Cynics.Eusebius of Caesarea · Ecclesiastical History IV.16 · source text
Connected in the archive
People
Events in this lifetime
- AD 95 · Domitian’s reprisals, AD 95
- AD 96 · Rome writes to Corinth: 1 Clement, AD 96
- AD 112 · Pliny writes Trajan, AD 112
- AD 117 · Symeon and Ignatius martyred, AD 117
- AD 135 · Bar Kokhba crushed; Aelia Capitolina, AD 135
- AD 144 · Marcion expelled at Rome, AD 144
- AD 156 · The New Prophecy erupts, AD 156
Place
Places served
The one place the sources put Crescens.
- 1Rome