HIEROCLES OF ALEXANDRIA (fl. c. A.D. 430), a Neo platonist, was a pupil of Plutarch at Athens, and taught for some years in his native city. Banished from Alexandria, he went to Constantinople, where his religious opinions led to his imprison ment. His commentary on the Carmina Aurea of Pythagoras, which enjoyed a great reputation in middle age and Renaissance times, is extant. Several other writings, especially one on provi dence and fate, are referred to by Photius and Stobaeus. The col lection of some 26o witticisms (w re a) called cl)tXo-yeXws (ed. A. Eberhard, Berlin, 1869), attributed to Hierocles and Philagrius, has no connection with Hierocles of Alexandria, but is probably a later compilation. It is now agreed that the fragments of the Ele ments of Ethics (`HO Ki aroLxeLwQts) preserved in Stobaeus are by a Gtoic named Hierocles, contemporary of Epictetus, who has been identified with the "Hierocles Stoicus vir sanctus et gravis" in Aulus Gellius (ix. 5. 8). This theory is confirmed by the dis covery of a papyrus (ed. H. von Arnim in Berliner Klassikertexte, iv. 1906; see also C. Prachter, Hierokles der Stoiker, 1901). The commentary was edited by F. W. Mullach in Frog. philos. Graec. (i 86o) ; there is an Eng. trans. by N. Rowe (1906) . See W. Christ, Gesch. der griech. Literatur (1898) ; i. berweg, Grund. der gesch. der Phil., pt. i (1926) and Zeller, Phil. der Griechen.
Another Hierocles, who flourished under Justinian, was the author of a list of provinces and towns in the Eastern Empire, called .l.'UYEKS'n/.IOS ("fellow-traveller"; ed. A. Burckhardt, r 93) ; it was one of the chief authorities used by Constantine Porphyrogenitus in his work on the "themes" of the Roman Empire (see C. Krumbacher, Gesch. der byzantinischen Literatur, 1897).