horizon, or circle bounding the visible ocean, below the apparent celestial horizon as above defined. It is due to the rotundity of the earth, and the height of the observer’s eye above the water. The dip of the horizon and its distance in sea-miles when the height of the observer’s eye above the sea-level is h feet, are approximately given by the formulae: Dip = 0′.97 √h; Distance = 1m.17 √h. The difference between the coefficients 0.97 and 1.17 arises from the refraction of the ray, but for which they would be equal.
HORMAYR, JOSEPH, Baron von (1782–1848), German statesman and historian, was born at Innsbruck on the 20th of January 1782. After studying law in his native town, and attaining the rank of captain in the Tirolese Landwehr, the young man, who had the advantage of being the grandson of Joseph von Hormayr (1705–1778), chancellor of Tirol, obtained a post in the foreign office at Vienna (1801), from which he rose in 1803 to be court secretary and, being a near friend of the Archduke John, director of the secret archives of the state and court for thirteen months. In 1803 he married Therese Anderler von Hohenwald. During the insurrection of 1809, by which the Tirolese sought to throw off the Bavarian supremacy confirmed by the treaty of Pressburg, Hormayr was the mainstay of the Austrian party, and assumed the administration of everything (especially the composition of proclamations and pamphlets); but, returning home without the prestige of success, he fell, in spite of the help of the Archduke John, into disfavour both with the emperor Francis I. and with Prince Metternich, and at length, when in 1813 he tried to stir up a new insurrection in Tirol, he was arrested and imprisoned at Munkatt. In 1816 some amends were made to him by his appointment as imperial historiographer; but so little was he satisfied with the general policy and conduct of the Austrian court that in 1828 he accepted an invitation of King Louis I. to the Bavarian capital, where he became ministerial councillor in the department of foreign affairs. In 1832 he was appointed Bavarian minister-resident at Hanover, and from 1837 to 1846 he held the same position at Bremen. Together with Count Johann Friedrich von der Decken (1769–1840) he founded the Historical Society of Lower Saxony (Historischer Verein für Niedersachsen). The last two years of his life were spent at Munich as superintendent of the national archives. He died on the 5th of October 1848.
Hormayr’s literary activity was closely conditioned by the circumstances of his political career and by the fact that Johannes von Müller (d. 1611) was his teacher: while his access to original documents gave value to his treatment of the past, his record or criticism of contemporary events received authority and interest from his personal experience. But his history of the Tirolese rebellion is far from being impartial; for he always liked to put himself into the first place, and the merits of Andreas Hofer and of other leaders are not sufficiently acknowledged. In his later writings he appears as a keen opponent of the policy of the court of Vienna.
The following are among Hormayr’s more important works: Geschichte des Grafen von Andechs (1796); Lexikon für Reisenden in Tirol (1796); Kritisch-diplomatische Beiträge zur Geschichte Tirols im Mittelalter (2 vols., Innsbruck, 1802–1803, new ed., 1805); Gesch. der gefürst. Grafschaft Tirol (2 vols., Tübingen, 1806–1808); Österreichischer Plutarch, 20 vols., collection of portraits and biographies of the most celebrated administrators, commanders and statesmen of Austria (Vienna, 1807); an edition of Beauchamp’s Histoire de la guerre en Vendée (1809); Geschichte Hofers (1817, 2nd ed., 2 vols., 1845) and other pamphlets; Archiv für Gesch., Stat., Lit. und Kunst (20 vols., 1809–1828); Allgemeine Geschichte der neuesten Zeit vom Tod Friedrichs des Grossen bis zum zweiten Pariser Frieden (3 vols., Vienna, 1814–1819, 2nd ed., 1891); Wien, seine Gesch. und Denkwürdigkeiten (5 vols., Vienna, 1823–1824); together with Fragmente über Deutschland, in Sonderheit Bayerns Welthandel; Lebensbilder aus dem Befreiungskriege (3 vols., Jena, 1841–1844, 2nd ed., 1845); Die goldene Chronik von Hohenschwangau (Munich, 1842); Anemonen aus dem Tagebuch eines alten Pilgersmanns (4 vols., Jena, 1845–1847). Together with Mednyanski (1784–1844) he founded the Taschenbuch für die vaterländ. Gesch. (Vienna, 1811–1848).
See T. H. Merdau, Biographische Züge aus dem Leben deutscher Männer (Leipzig, 1815); Gräffer, Österreichische National-Encyclopädie, ii. (1835); Taschenbuch für vaterländische Geschichte (1836 and 1847); Neuer Nekrolog der Deutschen (1848); Blätter für literarische Unterhaltung (1849); Wurzbach, Österreichisches biographisches Lexikon, ix. (1863); K. Th. von Heigel in the Allgemeine deutsche Biographie (1881) and F. X. Wegele, Geschichte der deutschen Historiographie (Munich and Leipzig, 1885); F. v. Krones, Aus Österreichs stillen und bewegten Jahren 1810–1815; Biographie und Briefe an Erzhz. Johann (Innsbruck, 1892); Hirn, Tiroler Aufstand (1909). (J. Hn.)
HORMISDAS, pope from 514 to 523 in succession to Symmachus, was a native of Campania. He is known as having succeeded in obtaining the reunion of the Eastern and Western Churches, which had been separated since the excommunication of Acacius in 484. After two unsuccessful attempts under the emperor Anastasius I., Hormisdas had no difficulty in coming to an understanding in 518 with his successor Justin. Legates were despatched to Constantinople; the memorial of the schismatic patriarchs was condemned; and union was resumed with the Holy See.
Details of this transaction have come down to us in the Collectio Avellana (Corpus script. eccl. Vindobon., vol. xxv., Nos. 105-203; cf. Andreas Thiel, Epp. Rom. Pont. i. 741 seq.).
HORMIZD, or Hormizdas, the name of five kings of the Sassanid dynasty (see Persia: Ancient History). The name is another form of Ahuramazda or Ormuzd (Ormazd), which under the Sassanids became a common personal name and was borne not only by many generals and officials of their time (it therefore occurs very often on Persian seals), but even by the pope of Rome noticed above. It is strictly an abbreviation of Hormuzd-dad, “given by Ormuzd,” which form is preserved by Agathias iv. 24-25 as name of King Hormizd I. and II. (Ὁρμισδάτης).
1. Hormizd I. (272–273) was the son of Shapur I., under whom he was governor of Khorasan, and appears in his wars against Rome (Trebellius Pollio, Trig. Tyr. 2, where Nöldeke has corrected the name Odomastes into Oromastes, i.e. Hormizd). In the Persian tradition of the history of Ardashir I., preserved in a Pahlavi text (Nöldeke, Geschichte des Artachsir I. Pāpakān), he is made the son of a daughter of Mithrak, a Persian dynast, whose family Ardashir had extirpated because the magians had predicted that from his blood would come the restorer of the empire of Iran. Only this daughter is preserved by a peasant; Shapur sees her and makes her his wife, and her son Hormizd is afterwards recognized and acknowledged by Ardashir. In this legend, which has been partially preserved also in Ṭabari, the great conquests of Shapur are transferred to Hormizd. In reality he reigned only one year and ten days.
2. Hormizd II., son of Narseh, reigned for seven years five months, 302–309. Of his reign nothing is known. After his death his son Adarnases was killed by the grandees after a very short reign, as he showed a cruel disposition; another son, Hormizd, was kept a prisoner, and the throne reserved for the child with which a concubine of Hormizd II. was pregnant and which received the name Shapur II. Hormizd escaped from prison by the help of his wife in 323, and found refuge at the court of Constantine the Great (Zosim. ii. 27; John of Antioch, fr. 178; Zonar. 13.5). In 363 Hormizd served in the army of Julian against Persia; his son, with the same name, became consul in 366 (Ammian. Marc. 26. 8. 12).
3. Hormizd III., son of Yazdegerd I., succeeded his father in 457. He had continually to fight with his brothers and with the Ephthalites in Bactria, and was killed by Peroz in 459.
4. Hormizd IV., son of Chosroes I., reigned 578–590. He seems to have been imperious and violent, but not without some kindness of heart. Some very characteristic stories are told of him by Ṭabari (Nöldeke, Geschichte d. Perser und Araber unter den Sasaniden, 264 ff.). His father’s sympathies had been with the nobles and the priests. Hormizd protected the common people and introduced a severe discipline in his army and court. When the priests demanded a persecution of the Christians, he declined on the ground that the throne and the government could only be safe if it gained the goodwill of both concurring religions. The consequence was that he raised a strong opposition in the ruling classes, which led to many executions and confiscations. When he came to the throne he killed his brothers,
