Against Hierocles is a polemical treatise written in Koine Greek by the early Christian scholar Eusebius of Caesarea, composed around 311–313 CE. This apologetic work was a direct response to a lost text titled The Lover of Truth, authored by the Roman governor Sossianus Hierocles, a key official in Emperor Diocletian’s persecution of Christians. In his treatise, Hierocles sought to demonstrate the superiority of the pagan sage and miracle-worker Apollonius of Tyana over Jesus Christ, drawing primarily on the biographical account of Apollonius written by Philostratus. Eusebius’s rebuttal is structured as a systematic, point-by-point refutation of the forty-three arguments presented by Hierocles, aiming to defend the divinity and uniqueness of Christ. A central theme of the work is a critical examination of pagan sources; Eusebius vigorously attacks the reliability of Philostratus’s narrative, arguing it is a fictional and fantastical composition when compared to the sober and credible accounts of the Gospels. The treatise serves a dual purpose: it functions as an intellectual defence aimed at the educated pagan elite, while also providing reassurance and fortification for the Christian community enduring a period of intense state-sponsored persecution. The full text of Hierocles’s original work is lost and is known only through the quotations and summaries preserved within Eusebius’s refutation. Eusebius’s Against Hierocles has survived intact and is transmitted in Greek manuscripts from the 14th century onward, often appearing alongside his larger apologetic work, Preparation for the Gospel.
The text of this work is not published here yet.