Cyrus of Panopolis

Cyrus of Panopolis (full name Flavius ​​Taurus Seleucus Cyrus Hierax ) was an Eastern Roman Patricius and senator under Empress Aelia Eudocia and Emperor Theodosius II .

Cyrus came from Panopolis in the Thebais . He was twice city ​​prefect of Constantinople (426 and 439) and consul in 441. He was also a poet, philosopher and art lover.

While at his consulate, Cyrus was charged with paganism and stripped of his posts and property. In the Hippodrome celebrated as the "second founder of Constantinople," he was too powerful Theodosius. Cyrus was ordained bishop of Cotyaeum in Phrygia in 443 , but gave up this office again after the death of Theodosius in 450 and lived as a private person until the time of Leon II in Constantinople, after Markian had pardoned him and reinstated him in his property.

Cyrus was the first prefect to issue his ordinances in the Greek language. He had more public works built than anyone since Constantine the Great . Together with the imperial couple, he was also instrumental in converting the comparatively modest educational establishment created by Constantine into a large, important university. Although both the Greek and Latin departments each had ten chairs for grammar, the Greek department boasted five chairs for rhetoric, while the Latin department had to make do with three.

literature

• John Julius Norwich: Byzantium. The rise of the Eastern Roman Empire . ISBN 3-8289-0374-6
• John Robert Martindale: Fl. Taurus Seleucus Cyrus 7. In: The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire (PLRE). Volume 2, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1980, ISBN 0-521-20159-4 , pp. 336-339.
• Otto Seeck : Cyrus 11 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XII, 1, Stuttgart 1924, Sp. 188-190.