The Apologies of Justin Martyr

JUSTIN, philosopher and martyr, was born at Flavia Neapolis, in Samaria, near the ancient Sichem, the modern Nablûs, at the close of the first or the beginning of the second century. His father was Priscus, his grandfather Bacchius. The names indicate that they belonged to the stock of the Greek colony sent to Sichem by Flavius Vespasianus, the Emperor Vespasian, after whom the place was named. It is sufficiently evident that he was not a Samarian in any other sense than that he was a native of that region, and, according to his own statement, he was an uncircumcised heathen at the time of his conversion. Of this conversion we have an interesting account in the opening of his Dialogue with Trypho.