Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/261

Rh GEORGIUS. assuming the title of emperor crossed over into Bulgaria to assert his claim. He refused the ofifers of the emperor Constautine, and routed his army, but fell in the moment of victory by a wound from an unknown hand, A. D. 1042 or 1043. (Zonaras, xvii. 12; Cedren. Compend. vol. ii. pp. 494, 500, 512, 514, 520—523, 541, 545—549, ed. Bonn. ; Joan Scylitza Curopalates, Historia, p. 720, ed. Bonn.) 16. NosTONGUS (Noo-To77os), a Byzantine no- bleman, to whom the emperor Theodore Lascaris II. (1255 — 1258) had intended to give his daugh- ter in marriage ; an alliance the prospect of which tended to make him, during the minority of Joannes Lascaris, the son of Theodore, insufferably arrogant. (Georg. Pachymer, De Micltael Falaeol. i. 21, vol. i. p. 65, ed. Paris.) 17. PaLAEOLOGUS. [PAr.AEOI.OGUS,] 18. Pkganes, military chief of the thema Ob- sequium, was the chief supporter of Symbatius, rival of Basil the Macedonian [Basilius I. Ma- CEDO], in the revolt to which he was led by his jealousy of Basil's elevation to the rank of Augus- tus by the reigning emperor Michael III, a. d. 866. Symbatius and George ravaged the open country about Constantinople, and while they reviled Basil, and denied his claim to the throne, spoke with great respect of Michael. Being deserted by their troops, they fled, and George sought refuge in Cotyaeium, one of the cities of his government, where he was soon after taken by the emperor's troops : he was scourged, blinded, and either exiled or detained in custody in his own house. On the accession of Basil as sole emperor, he was restored to his former honours. (Theophan. Continuat. Chronog. lib. v. de Basilio Macedone, c. 19; Symeon Mag. de Michaele et TJieodora^ c. 44 ; Georg. Monach. de Michiiele et Tlieodora^ c. 31.) 19. Probata (npogaras) was sent as ambas- sador by the emperor Michael IV., the Paphlago- nian, to the Saracen Emir of Sicily (a. D. 1035), to treat of peace. In 1040, in the same reign, he commanded an army against the Servians. (Cedren. Compend. vol. ii. p. 513, 526.) 20. Syrus i^'S.vpos) was sent by the emperor Justinian II., with a few ships and 300 soldiers, against the town of Chersonae, in the Cherson- nesus Taurica, the inhabitants of which were in a state of insurrection. George, with his party, was admitted into the town, and there he was killed by the townsmen, with Joannes, one of his chief officers, and the rest of his troops taken prisoners, A. D. 711. (Theophan. Chronog. vol. i. p. 580, ed. Bonn.) Beside personages belonging to the Byzantine empire, there were many Georges in the states which were formed out of it during its decay, or at its fall. The name occurs in the notices of the Servian, or Bulgarian, or Albanian provinces and chieftains. The most eminent was George Cas- triota, better known by the epithet Scanderbeg, who lived about the time of the final capture of Constantinople (a. d. 1453). Among the Com- neni of Trebizond [Comnenus] there was one emperor George (a. d. 1266 to 1280), and there were several Georges members of the imperial family. [J. C. M.J GEO'RGIUS (re«kp7ios), literary and ecclesias- tical. The following list contains only the prin- cipal writers of that name. Those whose works are lost, or exist only in MS., may be found by a GEORGIUS. 247 reference to Fabric. Dill. Gr. ; the index to which enumerates more than a hundred persons of this name. 1. ACROPOLITA. [ACROPOLITA.] 2. Of Alexandria. [See No. 7.] 3. Of Alexandria, the writer of a life of Chrysostom, which has been several times printed (sometimes with a Latin version by Godfrey Til- mann), in editions of the works of Chrysostom.. Photius gives an account of the work, but says he could state nothing certain respecting tlie author. He is styled Bishop of Alexandria, and it is the opinion of those who have examined into the matter that he lived after the commencement of the seventh century. A George was Catholic bishop or patriarch of Alexandria from a. d. 616 to 630, and as no other patriarch appears under that name between A. d. 600 and the time of Photius, he was probably the writer. The life of Chrysostom occupies above a hundred folio pages, in Savile's edit, of Chrysostom (vol. viii. pp. 157, 265). It abounds in useless and fabulous matter. The writer in his preface professes to have drawn his account from the writings of Palladius and Socrates, and from the oral statements of faithful priests and pious laymen. Oudin ascribes to this writer the compilation of the Chronicon Paschale, but without foundation. (Georgius, Vita Chrys. ; Phot. Blbl. Cod. ^Q ; Fabric. Bibl. Gr. vol.vii. p. 451, vol. viii. p. 457, vol. x. pp.210, 707 ; Allati us, Z>za- trib. de Georg. apud Fabric. Bibl. Gr. vol. xii. p. 16 ; Ca.e, Hist. Lit. vol. i. p. 577, ed. Ox. 1740-43.) 4. Amyrutza, or Amyrutzes, a native of Tra- pezus or Trebizond. He was high in favour at Constantinople with the emperor Johannes or John II. Palaeologus, and was one of those whom the emperor consulted about his attendance at the council of Florence, a. d. 1439. George afterwards returned to Trebizond, and was high in favour with David, the last emperor of Trebizond, at whose court he seems to have borne the offices of Logo- theta and Protovestiarius. His intellectual attain- ments obtained for him the title of " the philoso- pher." On the capture of Trebizond by the Turks (a. d. 1461), he obtained the favour of the sultfin, Mohammed II., partly by his handsome person and his skill in the use of the javelin, but chiefly through a marriage connection with a Turkish pacha. Mohammed often conversed with him on philosophy and religion, and gave him some con- siderable posts in the seraglio at Constantinople. He embraced the Mohammedan religion, together with his children ; and his death, which occurred suddenly, while he was playing at dice, is repre- sented by some Christian writers as the punish- ment of his apostasy ; from which we may perhaps infer that it followed that event after no great in- terval. He wrote in Greek, apparently in the early part of his life, at any rate before his renunciation of Christianity, a work the title of which is rendered into Latin by our authorities, ^^ Ad Demetrium Nauplii Duceiii de its quae contiyerunt in Synodo Florentina.'*'' In this he opposed the projected union of the Greek and Latin churches. Allatius mentions this work in his De Consensu utriusque Ecclesiae^ and quotes from it. Two other works, of which the titles are thus given, Dialogus de Fide in Christo cum Rege Turcarum, and Epis- iola ad Bessarion Cardinalem, are or were extant in MS. (Gery, Appendix to Cave's Hist. LiU. R 4