Councillors, Heretics, and Archbishops in Late Antique Hierapolis: Recent Epigraphical Findings Concerning the City, its Territory, and the History of Hierapolis’ Bishopric (4th - 9th cent.)

In the last years the Missione Archeologica Italiana di Hierapolis di Frigia (MAIER) has recovered some important epigraphic documents which offer new data for the history of the city of Hierapolis, its bishopric, and the surrounding territory in Late Antiquity (4th-6th cent.). The most recently published inscriptions are discussed in this paper in their historical context (parr. 1-3) and the development of Hierapolis’ bishopric and its episcopal prosopography between the 4th and the 9th cent. are analyzed through the examination of literary and epigraphical sources and the comparison with other relevant cities of Western Asia Minor (par. 4.a-f).