Short answers, pulled from the story.
Heliodorus of Emesa was the author of the ancient Greek novel the Aethiopica, also known as Theagenes and Chariclea. He identified himself, in the novel's final line, as a Phoenician from Emesa, of the line of Helios, and the son of Theodosius.
The Aethiopica is an ancient Greek novel by Heliodorus of Emesa, also known by the title Theagenes and Chariclea after its two central characters. Scholars have dated its composition to either the 220s or the 370s AD.
Scholars date the Aethiopica to either the 220s or the 370s AD, a question that remains unresolved. Heliodorus offers no outside evidence in the text that would settle the debate between the two proposed centuries.
In the closing line of the Aethiopica, Heliodorus described himself as being 'of the line of Helios,' a phrase also translated as 'from the race of the sun.' According to Tim Whitmarsh, the phrase looks like a claim to hereditary priesthood, though he notes that uncertainties remain.
A later tradition claimed that Heliodorus of Emesa became a Christian bishop, but that claim is likely fictional.
Emesa, the home city of Heliodorus, is known today as Homs, in Syria. Richard L. Hunter describes the Emesenes as a culturally complex group with Arab, Phoenician and Greek elements, and notes the city's connection to the Roman imperial household from at least the third century AD, including the empress Julia Domna and the cult of Elagabal, which inspired the emperor Heliogabalus.