At an early age he set out to seek his fortune in Constantinople, and held high court and state offices in the praetorian prefecture of the East under Anastasius and Justinian.
Around 543, Lydus was appointed to a chair of Latin language and literature at an institute of higher education of Constantinople.
Lydus was also commissioned by Justinian to compose a panegyric on the emperor, and a history of his campaign against Sassanid Persia; but these, as well as some poetical compositions, are lost.
[1] He was interested in gynaecology and embryology and included several related passages in his "De Mensibus", with references to previous authors.
[4] See also the essay by CB Hase (the first editor of the De Ostentis) prefixed to I. Bekker's edition of Lydus (1837) in the Bonn Corpus scriptorum hist.