Hierocles ( Greek: Ἱεροκλῆς ''Hierokles'') was a

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

geographer of the sixth century and the attributed author of the '' Synecdemus'' or ''Synekdemos'', which contains a table of administrative divisions of the Byzantine Empire and lists of the cities of each. The work is dated to the reign of

Justinian Justinian I (; la, Iustinianus, ; grc-gre, Ἰουστινιανός ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was the Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565. His reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized '' renova ...

but prior to 535, as it divides the 912 listed cities in the Empire among 64 Eparchies. The ''Synecdemus'' is thus one of the most invaluable monuments which we have to study the political geography of the sixth century East. The work of Hierocles along with that of

Stephanus of Byzantium Stephanus or Stephan of Byzantium ( la, Stephanus Byzantinus; grc-gre, Στέφανος Βυζάντιος, ''Stéphanos Byzántios''; centuryAD), was a Byzantine grammarian and the author of an important geographical dictionary entitled ''Ethn ...

were the principal sources of

Constantine VII Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (; 17 May 905 – 9 November 959) was the fourth Emperor of the Macedonian dynasty of the Byzantine Empire, reigning from 6 June 913 to 9 November 959. He was the son of Emperor Leo VI and his fourth wife, Zoe ...

's work on the Themes (''De Thematibus''). Hierocles was published by Parthey (Hieroclis Synecdemus; Berlin, 1866) then in a corrected text, by A. Burckhardt in the Teubner series
Hieroclis Synecdemus; Leipzig, 1893
. The most recent major publication was by E. Honigmann (''Le Synekdèmos d'Hiéroklès et l'opuscule géographique de Georges de Chypre''; Brussels, 1939). The Synecdemus of Hierocles should not be confused with a

Greek Orthodox The term Greek Orthodox Church ( Greek: Ἑλληνορθόδοξη Ἐκκλησία, ''Ellinorthódoxi Ekklisía'', ) has two meanings. The broader meaning designates "the entire body of Orthodox (Chalcedonian) Christianity, sometimes also cal ...

prayer book by the same name.

References

* Wolfgang Buchwald, Dictionnaire des auteurs grecs et latins de l'Antiquité et du Moyen-Âge, s. v. Hiéroclès, p. 408. * Getzel Cohen, The Hellenistic Settlements in Europe, the Islands, and Asia Minor (), p. 7. * *

Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium The ''Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium'' (ODB) is a three-volume historical dictionary published by the English Oxford University Press. With more than 5,000 entries, it contains comprehensive information in English on topics relating to the Byzant ...

, s. v. Hierokles, vol. II, 930.

External links

Synecdemus (the Balkanic provinces), with 2 maps
at SOLTDM.COM {{DEFAULTSORT:Hierocles Byzantine geographers 6th-century Byzantine people 6th-century Byzantine writers Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown 6th-century geographers