Joannes PHOCAS
100. PHOCAS (Φοκὰς), a Cretan monk, son of Matthaeus, who became a monk in Patmos. Joannes had served in the army of the emperor Manuel Comnenus (who reigned A. D. 1143-1180) in Asia Minor.
Works
Ἔκφρασις ἐνδυνόψει τῶν ἀπʼ Ἀντιοχείας μέχρις Ἱεροσολύμων κάδτρων καὶ χωρῶν Συρίας καὶ Φοινίκης καὶ τῶν κατὰ Παλαιστίνην ἁγίων τόπων, Compendiaria Descriptio Castrorum et Urbium sic in Allat. vers. ab Urbe Antiochia usque Hierosolymam; necnon Syriae ac Phoeniciae, et in Palestina Sacrorum Locorum.
He married, and had a son, by whom his work was transcribed; and afterwards became a monk and priest, and visited (A. D. 1185) Syria and Palestine, of which he wrote a short geographical account, entitled Ἔκφρασις ἐνδυνόψει τῶν ἀπʼ Ἀντιοχείας μέχρις Ἱεροσολύμων κάδτρων καὶ χωρῶν Συρίας καὶ Φοινίκης καὶ τῶν κατὰ Παλαιστίνην ἁγίων τόπων, Compendiaria Descriptio Castrorum et Urbium ab Urbe Antiochia usque Hierosolymam; necnon Syriae ac Phoeniciae, et in Palestina Sacrorum Locorum.
Editions
The work was published by Allatius, with a Latin version, in his Σύμμικτα, vol. i. pp. 1-46. The Latin version is also given in the Acta Sanctorum of the Bollandists, Maii, vol. ii. ad init.
Further Information
Allatius, Σύμμικτα, Praefatiuncula; Fabric. Bibl. Gr. vol. iv. p. 662, vol. viii. p. 99.
From William Smith (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Text provided under a CC BY-SA license by Perseus Digital Library, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Tufts University. Data accessed from https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-pdlrefwk/ on 17 October 2026.