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Son of Hesychius the physician; the man surnamed Psychristus ["Chilly"], from the exarchy of Damascus. His father went to Rhodes, then to Drepanon, the one in Argos [Myth, Place];[1] and when he came there he married the woman who bore Jacob to him. Then he left his wife and the child and spent 19 years abroad in Alexandria and Italy and seemed to be no longer living. Therefore Jacob's mother married a second husband. When she had two [male] children and a daughter, the man who married her passed away. But Hesychius went up to Constantinople; and when Jacob learned this, he came to him. And then he began his education and served as a physician at Constantinople during the reign of the emperor Leo.[2]

*)ia/kwbos, *(hsuxi/ou ui(o\s i)atrou=, o( e)piklhqei\s *yu/xristos, e)k tou= e)ca/rxou *damaskhnou=. ei)s *(ro/don de\ genome/nou tou= patro/s, ei)=ta ei)s *dre/panon to\ e)n *)/argei, e)lqo/ntos ka)kei= gh/mantos th\n e)c au)tou= tekou=san to\n *)ia/kwbon, katalipo/ntos de\ th/n te gameth\n kai\ to\n pai=da kai\ e)kdhmh/santos e)pi\ e)/th iq# ei)/s te *)aleca/ndreian kai\ *)itali/an kai\ ou)de\ periei=nai dokou=ntos: o(/qen gamei=tai me\n h( *)iakw/bou mh/thr deute/rw| a)ndri/. kai\ pai/dwn au)th=| genome/nwn du/o kai\ qhlei/as, teleuta=| to\n bi/on o( gamh/sas au)th/n. e)pa/neisi de\ *(hsu/xios e)n *kwnstantinoupo/lei: o(/per gnou\s *)ia/kwbos h)=lqe pro\s au)to/n: kai\ to/te paidei/as h)/rcato kai\ i)a/treusen e)n *kwnstantinoupo/lei e)pi\ *le/ontos basile/ws.

Damascius, Life of Isidore fr. 190 Zintzen. Cf. Photius, Bibliotheca p. 344a 5 ff.; Malalas p. 370 Dindorf, now XIV.38 Thurn pp. 292-293; cf. Jeffreys et al. p. 204. See also iota 13. On Iacobos, see PLRE II s.v. Iacobus(3). On his father Hesychius, see PLRE II s.v. Hesychius(8).
[1] The qualifier is intended to distinguish this Drepanon from several others throughout the Mediterranean. But "Argos [Myth, Place]" seems to be an error; Cape Drepanon (present-day Drepano) was in Achaia, at the northernmost point of the Peloponnese, Barrington Atlas map 58 grid B1.
[2] Leo I, ruled 457-74 AD: see lambda 267. Iacobos studied medicine under his father at Constantinople, rose to distinction (cf. sigma 852), and apparently earned his nickname, Psychristus, for his tendency to prescribe cold baths to his patients; cf. PLRE II s.v. Iacobus(3).

J. Thurn, ed., Ioannis Malalae Chronographia, (Berlin 2000)
E. Jeffreys, M. Jeffreys, and R. Scott, trans., The Chronicle of John Malalas, (Leiden 1986)
J.R. Martindale, The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, vol. II, (Cambridge 1980)

David Whitehead (augmented notes and keywords; cosmetics) on 2 July 2006@05:23:01.
Catharine Roth (restored reference) on 14 November 2010@22:11:02.
David Whitehead on 8 January 2013@04:17:22.
Ronald Allen (augmented primary note, added bibliography, added map reference n.1) on 4 July 2026@16:59:23.
Ronald Allen (augmented primary note, added to bibliography, expanded n.2) on 4 July 2026@18:01:45.
Ronald Allen (augmented n.2, added cross-reference) on 4 July 2026@18:13:46.

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