SOSSIANUS HIEROCLES. - Anti-Christian writer. Born in the second half of the 3rd century; he was prefect of Phoenicia, Bithynia and Lower Egypt. A bitter enemy of the Christians, he was a member of the council that drove Diocletian to persecution. In his governance he showed himself cruel, subjecting Christians to unheard-of torments.

Around 307 he wrote a libel, in two books, which he hypocritically entitled Φιλαλήθης, in which he displayed a certain knowledge of Christian sources. The writing is lost, but its content is known from the refutations written against it by Lactantius and Eusebius of Caesarea. In it H., borrowing his arguments from Porphyry, inveighed against Holy Scripture, accusing it of lies and contradictions, against the Apostles, judged to be forgers and ignoramuses, and in particular against the person of Jesus Christ, to whom he claimed to oppose the legendary Apollonius of Tyana.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: Lactantius, Divin. Instit., V, II; id., De mort. persec., XVI, 4; Eusebius, Contra Hieroc., PG 22, 795-816; P. De Labriolle, La réaction païenne, Paris 1941, pp. 306-10.

Agostino Amore

@incollection{ec6_gerocle_sossiano, author = {Amore, Agostino}, title = {Gerocle Sossiano}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VI}, pages = {181--182}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/gerocle-sossiano} }

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Sossianus Hierocles

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