by Boreades » 1:12 am
Robert I. Clegg, in Mackey's Revised History of Freemasonry, Volume I (1921), says:
"Later history of the association of Dionysian Architects forms no part of the Legend just cited. But we may here to advantage trace their progress. About seven hundred years after the building of the Temple at Jerusalem, they are said to have been incorporated by the King of Pergamum, an ancient province of Mysia, as a society exclusively engaged in the erection of public buildings such as theaters and temples. They settled at Teos, an Ionian city on the coast of Asia Minor, where notwithstanding its troubles they remained for several centuries. Among the works by them were a magnificent theater and a splendid temple of Dionysus, ruins of which still remain.
"Becoming unruly they were at length expelled from Teos and departed to Ephesus. King Attalus sent them from that city to Myonessus. The Teians sending representatives to Rome requesting that the Myonessians should not be permitted to fortify their city, the Dionysiacs removed to Lebedos, about fifteen miles from Teos, where they were welcomed.
"In the 5th Century of the Christian Era, the Emperor Theodosius forbid all mystical associations but the Dionysiacs are said to have continued their existence until the time of the Crusades. Then they passed over into Europe, and were merged in the association of Builders known as the Traveling Freemasons of the Middle Ages."