Pierius

Luke Stevens' work on Papias is coming to light; specifically Papias' intermediary for the postNicaean Patristics. He argued Eusebius used Pierius; lately we're hearing this of Athanasius of Sinai also.

Pierius was a philologer in Alexandria. Like Dionysius he was a student of Origen (especially for his Hexapla) and of Clement. This means allegory. (So much allegory . . .) Various scholiasts credit Stevens' man with a church history, a commentary on Matthew, and an ... Easter homily.

Cyril of Alexandria thought Pierius went too far. But the Eusebii - of Emesa and of Caesarea - mined Pierius extensively, likely (already!) lacking Pierius' sources, most-especially Papias. Athanasius appreciated Pierius' study of Genesis for its own sake, using this in his Hexaemeron.

As for those Pierian sources: If the mediaeval manuscript-hunters had honestly seen Papias in Latin, then by Pierius' time Papias in Greek could be found only at Rome anymore, and eventually not even there. Pierius further used Irenaeus' Demonstratio also, it seems, swiftly lost in Greek (and in Latin); although in this case the Armenians saved it for us. Of Hegesippus (e.g. Hypomnemata), I know less; I wonder if Pierius had him directly, or else from-and-through Julius Africanus. That so many citers of Pierius focus on Genesis implies - to Stevens - that Pierius made heavy use of Origen's commentary upon that book. Maybe this formed the preface to the church-history? John bar Penkaye started his own Main Points with Creation.