, one of the writers in the Byzantine history, was born at Constantinople
, one of the writers in the
Byzantine history, was born at Constantinople in the year
1220, and brought up at the court of the emperor John
Ducas, at Nice. He studied mathematics, poetry, and
rhetoric under Theodorus Exapterygus, and learned logic
of Nicephorus Blemmidas. In his one-and-twentieth year,
he maintained a learned dispute with Nicholas the physician, concerning the eclipse of tLe sun, before the emperor John. He was at length appointed great logothete,
and employed in the most important affairs of the empire.
John Ducas sent him ambassador to Larissa, to establish
a peace with Michael of Epirus. He was also constituted
judge by this emperor, to try Michael Comnenus on a
suspicion of being engaged in a conspiracy. Theodorus
Lascaris, the son of John, whom he had taught logic, appointed him governor of all the western provinces of his
empire. When he held this government, in the year
1255, being engaged in a war with Michael Angelus, he
was taken prisoner by him. In 1260, he gained his liberty by means of the emperor Palasologus, who sent him
ambassador to Constantine prince of Bulgaria. After his
return, he applied himself wholly to the instruction of
youth, in which employment he acquitted himself with
great honour for many years; but being at last weary of
the fatigue, he resigned it to Holobolus. In 1272, he
sat as one of the judges upon the cause of John Vecchus,
patriarch of Constantinople. The year following he was
sent to pope Gregory, to settle a peace and re-union between the two churches, which was accordingly concluded; and he swore to it, in the emperor’s name, at the
second council of Lyons, in 1274. He was sent ambassador to John prince of Bulgaria in 1382, and died soon
after his return. His principal work is his “Historia Byzantina,
” Gr. Lat. Paris, fol.