ERACLIANO. – A citizen of Sirmium in the fourth century, a faithful Catholic and opponent of Arianism, as represented by his bishop Germinius.
There survives an Alteratio Heracliani laici cum Germinio episcopio Sirmienti de fide synodi Nicuenae et Ariminensis Arianorum. It is a stenographic report by an eyewitness who attended the interrogation of this layman, tried by his bishop together with two companions on account of their faith on 7 January 366. Unable to overcome them by argument, Germinius resorts to physical measures and extorts from them a written confession of Arian faith. The report is composed in a fresh, rustic Latin, and is extremely interesting for its theological and cultural details and for its dependence on African writers. It was first published by C. P. Caspari, Kirchenhistorische Anekdota, I, Christiania 1883, pp. 131–47.