Hierocles (

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

: 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 The ''Synecdemus'' or ''Synekdemos'' ( el, Συνέκδημος) is a geographic text, attributed to Hierocles, which contains a table of administrative divisions of the Byzantine Empire and lists of their cities. The work is dated to the reign o ...

'' 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 ''renovat ...

but prior to 535, as it divides the 912 listed cities in the Empire among 64

Eparchies Eparchy ( gr, ἐπαρχία, la, eparchía / ''overlordship'') is an ecclesiastical unit in Eastern Christianity, that is equivalent to a diocese in Western Christianity. Eparchy is governed by an ''eparch'', who is a bishop. Depending on the ...

. 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 ''Ethni ...

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 Kar ...

's work on the

Theme Theme or themes may refer to: * Theme (arts), the unifying subject or idea of the type of visual work * Theme (Byzantine district), an administrative district in the Byzantine Empire governed by a Strategos * Theme (computing), a custom graphical ...

s (''De Thematibus''). Hierocles was published by Parthey (Hieroclis Synecdemus; Berlin, 1866) then in a corrected text, by A. Burckhardt in the

Teubner The Bibliotheca Teubneriana, or ''Bibliotheca Scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana'', also known as Teubner editions of Greek and Latin texts, comprise one of the most thorough modern collection published of ancient (and some medieval) ...

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 language, Greek: Ἑλληνορθόδοξη Ἐκκλησία, ''Ellinorthódoxi Ekklisía'', ) has two meanings. The broader meaning designates "the Eastern Orthodox Church, entire body of Orthodox (Chalced ...

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