Sossianus Hierocles
late 3rd/early 4th century Roman aristocrat and official
Sossianus Hierocles (fl. 303 AD) was a late Roman aristocrat and office-holder. He served as a praeses in Syria under Diocletian at some time in the 290s. He was then made vicarius of some district, perhaps Oriens (the East, including Syria, Palestine, and, at the time, Egypt) until 303, when he was transferred to Bithynia. It is for his anti-Christian activities in Bithynia that he is principally remembered. He was, in the words of the Cambridge Ancient History, "one of the most zealous of persecutors". While in Bithynia, Hierocles authored Lover of Truth (Greek: Φιλαλήθης, Philalethes; also known as Φιλαλήθης λόγος, Philalethes logos), a critique of Christianity. Lover of Truth is noted as the first instance of the trope, popular in later pagan polemic, of comparing the pagan holy man Apollonius of Tyana to Jesus Christ.
Hierocles was among the campaigners for a stronger policy against Christians present at Diocletian's court through the early 4th century. The campaigners' aims were as realized in February 303 with the edicts of the Great Persecution, which expelled Christians from government service, deprived them of normal legal rights, and left them open to imprisonment and execution if they did not comply with traditional religious rites.
“Sossianus Hierocles” enters the record as late 3rd/early 4th century Roman aristocrat and official. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Sossianus, Hierocles and late can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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