Synecdemus

The Synecdemus or Synekdemos (Greek: Συνέκδημος) is a geographic text, attributed to Hierocles, which contains a table of administrative divisions of the Byzantine Empire and lists of the cities of each. The work is dated to the reign of Justinian but prior to 535, as it divides the 912 listed cities in the Empire among 64 Eparchies. The Synecdemus is thus one of the most invaluable monuments which we have to study the political geography of the sixth century East. The Synecdemus, along with the work of Stephanus of Byzantium were the principal sources of Constantine VII's work on the Themes (De Thematibus).

The Synecdemus has been published in various editions from 1735, notably by Gustav Parthey (Hieroclis Synecdemus; Berlin, 1866) and slightly later in a corrected text by A. Burckhardt in the Teubner series (Hieroclis Synecdemus; Leipzig, 1893). The most recent major publication was by E. Honigmann (Le Synekdèmos d'Hiéroklès et l'opuscule géographique de Georges de Chypre; Brussels, 1939).

References

• Hierocles, Grammaticus; Parthey, Gustav, ed. (1866) Hieroclis Synecdemus et notitiae Graecae episcopatuum; acedunt nili doxapatrii notitia patriarchatuum et locorum nomina immutata. Amsterdam: A. M. Hakkert, 1967
• Cohen, Getzel (1995) The Hellenistic Settlements in Europe, the Islands, and Asia Minor. Berkeley; Oxford: University of California Press ISBN 0-520-08329-6; p. 7.
• Buchwald, Wolfgang Dictionnaire des auteurs grecs et latins de l'Antiquité et du Moyen-Âge; s. v. Hiéroclès, p. 408.
• Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, s. v. Hierokles, vol. II, 930.