Hermogenes (magister officiorum)

Hermogenes (Greek: Ἑρμογένης, died 535/536) was an East Roman (Byzantine) official who served as magister officiorum, military commander and diplomatic envoy during the Iberian War against Sassanid Persia in the early reign of Emperor Justinian I (r. 527–565).

Hermogenes was probably from Scythia Minor (modern Dobrudja), as he is called "the Scythian" in Byzantine chronicles. In the 510s, he served as an assessor (head legal assistant) to the general Vitalian, who in 513–515 led a series of revolts against Emperor Anastasius I (r. 491–518).

By May 529, he had risen to the post of magister officiorum, head of the imperial secretariat. In April 529, he was sent as an envoy with many gifts to the Persian shah Kavadh I (r. 488–531) to formally announce Justinian's accession to the Byzantine throne and propose peace in the ongoing war. He arrived before Kavadh in July and returned bearing his reply for a one-year truce. In response, Emperor Justinian sent him again as an envoy, along with Rufinus, who had led repeated embassies to the Persian court in the past. The two arrived at Antioch in March 530, and then set out for Hierapolis, from where they sent notice of their arrival to Kavadh, expecting negotiations to resume. Kavadh, however, had prepared an invasion army and postponed meeting them. While Rufinus remained at Hierapolis, Hermogenes joined the Byzantine army commanded by Belisarius, newly promoted to magister militum per Orientem, at the fortress of Dara on the Persian border.

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