Marcus HYDRUNTIS
17. HYDRUNTIS or IDRUNTIS EPISCOPUS, (ἐπίσκοπος Ἱδροῦντος), BISHOP of OTRANTO. Marcus of Otranto is supposed to have lived in the eighth century. Allatius says he was oeconomus or steward of the great church of Constantinople, before he became bishop, which seems to be all that is known of him.
Works
He wrote Τῷ μεγάλω σαββάτῳ ἡ ἀκροστιχίς, Hymmus Acrostichus in Magnum Sabbatum, s. In Magno Sabbato Capita Versuum, which was published by Aldus Manutius, with a Latin version, in his edition of Prudentius and other early Christian poets, 4to., without mark of date or place; but judged to be Venice, 1501. The hymn is not in metre; the initial letters of the successive paragraphs are intended to make up the words καὶ σήμερον δέ, which are the opening words of the hymn; but as divided by Aldus, the acrostic is spoiled by the introduction of one or two superfluous letters. A Latin version of the hymn is given in several editions of the Bibliotheca Patrum.
Further Information
Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. xi. pp. 77, 677; Cave, Hist. Litt. ad ann. 750. vol. i. p. 630.
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.