Uranius, Governor of Cyprus

Uranius was governor of Cyprus in the mid-fifth century AD, known chiefly as a correspondent of Theodoret of Cyrrhus, who addressed several letters to him praising his administration of the island and his conduct as a Christian magistrate. Beyond these letters he is otherwise little attested, and the precise dates and rank of his governorship (consularis or praeses of the province of Cyprus) are not securely fixed; the correspondence places his activity in roughly the 440s, during Theodoret's most active period of letter-writing. The same name appears among the correspondents of the earlier bishop and philosopher Synesius of Cyrene (d. c. 413), but if that Uranius is a distinct individual the identification with the Cypriot governor is uncertain. He should be regarded as a minor provincial official documented mainly through the letters addressed to him rather than by independent historical record.