Flavius Lucius Dexter

Flavius Lucius Dexter (b. 368 CE - d. 444 CE^[1]) was a figure of the late fourth century,^[2] reported as a historian, and a friend of St Jerome. He was the son of St Pacian, an imperial office-holder, and dedicatee of a work of Jerome, the De Viris Illustribus.^[3]

He was the supposed author of a chronicle, called the Omnimoda Historia or the Chronicle of Pseudo-Dexter. It was in fact a forgery, one of a number of 's (1538–1611),^[4] including the continuation attributed to , as scholars now agree. The suspect authorship has been widely known since the work of the Spanish bibliographer Nicolás Antonio, the Censura de historias fabulosas, published in 1742.

Doubts were already cast on these false chronicles before 1600, but controversy continued late into the eighteenth century.^[5] The Cistercian (Bivarius) published a commentary and strong defence (Lyon, 1627).^[6] Later references to the Chronicle as genuine abound, e.g. its inclusion in part in the Patrologia Latina.^[7][8]

There is a second work attributed to him, In prophetam Danielis de quatuor animalibus ("Against the prophet Daniel on the four animals").^[8]

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