Hierocles

Hierocles is known chiefly as one of the many correspondents addressed by the sophist Libanius of Antioch in the second half of the fourth century AD. He received at least eight surviving letters from Libanius, placing him within the orator's extensive network of friends, former students, officials, and notables across the Greek-speaking East. The name Hierocles is borne by several men in Libanius's circle, so the precise career of this particular recipient is uncertain; on the evidence of the letters he was most likely a member of the educated provincial elite or an official with whom Libanius cultivated ties, active in or around Antioch during the 350s-390s. Beyond the correspondence itself little can be securely established about him without risk of conflating distinct men of the same name.