Συνέκδημος (
Travelling
Companion)
Hierocles is known to us only as the author of a work entitled
Συνέκδημος, that is, The Travelling Companion, which is intended as a handbook
for travellers through the provinces of the Eastern empire. It was probably written at the
beginning of the sixth century of our era; it contains a list of 64 eparchiae or provinces
of the Eastern empire, and of 935 different towns, with brief descriptions, and is therefore
of considerable importance for the geography of those countries.
Editions
The first edition in C. a S. Paulo, Geograph. Sacr., Paris,
1641, and Amsterdam, 1704, fol., is incomplete. Better editions are those in
E. Schelstraten's Antiquitas Eccles. Illustr., Rome, 1697, vol.
ii., and in vol. i. of Banduri's Imperium
Orient.; but by far the best edition is that of P. Wesseling, in his
Veterum Romanorum Itineraeria, Amsterdam, 1735, 4to., p.
631, &c.