Hierocles - Definition and Overview

Hierocles, proconsul of Bithynia and Alexandria, lived during the reign of Diocletian (AD 284-305).

He is said to have been the instigator of the fierce persecution of the Christians under Galerius in 303.

Hierocles was the author of a work (not extant) in two books, in which he endeavoured to persuade the Christians that their sacred books were full of contradictions, and that in moral influence and miraculous power Christ was inferior to Apollonius of Tyana. Our knowledge of this treatise is derived from Lactantius (Instit. div. v. 2) and Eusebius, who wrote a refutation.