Dorotheos, bishop

A bishop named Dorotheos addressed as a recipient of letters within the corpus (Greek address Δωροθέῳ ἐπισκόπῳ, 'to Dorotheos the bishop'). He is otherwise little attested and is known chiefly as a correspondent, with no secure independent biographical record. The episcopal title and the association with the letters of Isidore of Pelusium place him most plausibly in the early-fifth-century Christian milieu of Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean, where Isidore corresponded with numerous bishops, clergy, and officials on matters of scripture, doctrine, and church discipline. Dorotheos was a very common Greek name and several bishops bore it in this period, so this figure should not be confidently identified with any of the better-known holders of the name; what is genuinely known is limited to his appearance as an addressee.