Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/266

Rh 252 GEORGIUS. against Eudoxius of Antioch, whom he charged with being a disciple of Aetius ; and he excom- municated the younger Apollinaris, who was a reader in the church at Laodiceia, on account of the friendship he had formed with Athanasius. He took part in the appointment of Meletius to the bishopric of Antioch, and delivered one of three discourses then preached at the desire of the emperor Constantius II. on Prov. viii, 22—" The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old." His exposition of the passage was the least orthodox of the three ; that of Meletius, the new bishop, the most or- thodox. We know nothing of George after the death of Constantius, A. D. 361. His character is not impugned, except for his heresy, by any other writer than Athanasius, who charges him with living intemperately, and thereby incurring reproach even from his own party. It is hard to determine whether there is any, or how much, truth in the charge. Fabricius states {Bihl. Gr. vol. xi. p. 293) that George became in his latter days an Eunomian or Aetian, but he does not cite his authority, and we doubt the correctness of the statement. George of Laodiceia had studied phi- losophy. He wrote, 1. Letters to Alexander, bishop of Alexandria, and to the Arians of Alexandria, already noticed. 2. 'EyKC^fiiov ets EiiaeSiov tou 'Eixiar]v6v, Encomium Emebii Emiseni, containing the account already mentioned of the council of Antioch. 3. A work against the Manichaeans, now lost, mentioned by Heraclian (apud Phot. Bill. cod. 85). (Athan. Apol. contra Avian, c. 36, 48, 49, Hist. Avian, ad Monach, c. 4, 17, Apol. de Fuga sua, c. 26, Epistol. ad Episcop. Aegypt. et Libyae, c. 7, De Synodis^ c. 17 ; Socrates, H. E. i. 24, ii. 9, 10 ; Sozom. H. E. iii. 6, iv. 13 ; Theo- doret, H. E. ii. 8, 31, v. 7 ; Philostorg. H.E. viii. 17 ; Tillemont, Memoives, vol. viii. ix.) 30. Lkcapenus, a monk of Thessaly, who lived about the middle of the fourteenth century, and wrote on grammar and rhetoric. A treatise, Hepl (TuvToi^eus Toiv pTjfxdTwv, De Constvuctione Ver- borum, was printed at Florence A. d. 1515 and 1520, and at Venice, by Aldus Manutius and Asulanus a. d. 1525, with the Greek grammar of Theodore Gaza. In the printed editions the work is said to be by George Lecapenus ; but Allatius, on the authority of several MSS., claims it as the work of Michael Syncellus of Jerusalem. Some works of George Lecapenus remain in MS. Among them are: 1. A Grammar, or rather Lexicon of Attic Words, in alphabetical order. 2. An Exposi- tion of the Enchiridion of Epictetus. 3. A treatise On the Figures of Homer. 4. A History. 5. A Poem, in Iambic verse. 6. Several Letters. He also made a selection of the Letters of Libanius. (Fabric. Dibl. Gr. vol. vi, pp. 191, 297, 343, vol. viii. p. 79 ; Allatius, Ibid. p. 59.) 31. Mkthiminensis [of Mytilene, No. 35]. 32. Metochita. [Metochita.] 33. MoNACHus, or the Monk. Many MSS. preserved in the various European libraries bear the name of George the Monk as the author. Great perplexity has been occasioned by the vagueness of tiie designation, and its applicability to various persons of the name of George, but who are usually identified by some additional designation. There is extant in MS. a Chvonicon of George the Monk, whom some have identified, but there is reason to think incorrectly, with George Hamartolus [No. GEORGIUS. 27], or George Moschampar [No. 34], or with the author of the Vitae Receidior. Imperatorum men- tioned below. Georgius Monus, or George the Monk, who wrote Scholia in Divisionem Rhetoricae, may possibly be the Georgius Grammaticus already noticed [No. 25], but this is only conjecture ; and the Georgius Monachus, of whom a little work, Epitome Philosophiae, is extant in MS., is probably the Georgius or Gregorius Aneponymus, or Peri- pateticus mentioned below [No. 41]. (Fabric. Bibl. Gr. vol. vii. p. 685, vol. xi. p. 629 ; Allatius, ibid. p. 120.) A George the Monk is the author of a work, Bioj ruv veoiu BaaiKewu, Vitae Recentium Impe- ratorum, included in the published collections of the Byzantine historians. This work is the second part of a Chronicon apparently quite different from that mentioned above. It is chiefly taken from the Chronographia of George Syncellus [No. 46], and extends from the reign of Leo the Armenian to the death of Romanus Lecapenus, from a. d. 813 to A. D. 948. (Fabric. Bibl. Gr. vol. vii. p. 685 ; Bekker, Pvaefatio ad Vol. quo continentur Georg. Monach. Vitae Recent. Imp. ed. Bonn. 8vo. 1838.) ♦ 34. Moschampar. [Moschampar.] 35. Mytilenaeus, or of Mytilene. He is the author of a homily In Salutiferam D. N. Jesu Christi Passionem, published by Gretser, De Cruce, vol. ii. A work on the same subject, extant in MS. and described as by Georgius Methirainensis, or Methinensis (of Methymna?), has been con- jectured to be the same work, but the conjecture does not appear to be well founded. A George, Metropolitan of Mytilene, probably the same with the subject of the present article, is the author of two works extant in MS., Davidis et Symeonia Confessorum et Martyrum Officium and Eorundem Vita ac Historia. Some epigrams in praise of the writings of Dionysius Areopagita, by Georgius Patricius, a native of Mytilene, are said by the Jesuit Delrio {Vindiciae Areopagit. c. xxi.) to have been printed, but he does not say where ; but whether the author is the subject of the present article is by no means clear. (Allatius, Ibid. p. 22 ; Fabric, Bibl. Gr. vol. xi. p. 628) 36. Of NicoMEDEiA. He held the office of chartophylax (record-keeper) in the Great Church at Constantinople, whence he is sometimes called Georgius Chartopliylax (but he must not be con- founded with Georgius Chartophylax Callipolitanus [No. II]), and was afterwards archbishop of Nico- medeia. He lived in the latter part of the ninth century, and was the friend of Photius, many of whose letters are addressed to him. Combefis has confounded him with Georgius Pisida [No. 44], and has placed him in the reign of Heraclius, two centuries before his proper period. Several of his Homiliae are published in the Novum Auctarium of Combefis, vol. i. Three Idiomela (hymns or pieces set to music peculiar to them), written by him, are contained in the same collection, and a Latin translation of several of his Homiliae, and of two of his Idiomela, one of them in praise of St. John Chrysostom, the other in praise of the Ni- cene Fathers, are contained in the BibliotJieca Patrum (vol. xii. p. 692, &c., ed. Lyon., 1677). Beside the homilies in Combefis, ascribed to George of Nicomedeia, another in the same collection On ilie Nativity of tlie Virgin, ascribed there to An- dreas of Crete, is supposed to be by him. Among