Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/269

Rh GEORGIUS. contended that we have the work of Syncelhis in a complete form, but the contrary opinion seems to be the better founded. Possevino, Vossius, and others have identified Syncellus with Georgiiis Hamartolus [No. 27] ; but Allatius has shown that this identification is erroneous. Syncellus has transcribed verbatim a considerable part of the Chronicon of Eusebius, so that his work has been employed to restore or complete the Greek text of the Chronicon. The Chronographia of Theophanes, which extends from a.d. 285 to A. d. 813, may be regarded as a continuation of that of Syncellus, and completes the author's original design. The Bonn edition of Syncellus is edited by W. Din- dorf, and, with the brief Chronographia of Nicepho- rus of Constantinople, occupies two volumes 8vo., 1829. (Theophanes, Prooemium ad Chronog. ; Ce- dren. Compend. sub init. ; Allatius, Ibid. p. 24 ; Fabric. BM. Gr. vol. vii. p. 457 ; Cave, Hist Litt. vol. i. p. 641.) 47. SvRACUSANUS. Some of the hymns in the Menaea^ or services for the saints' days in the Greek church, are ascribed to George, who was bishop of Syracuse about A. D. 663, and who is said to have studied Greek literature at Constantinople, and to have become an accomplished scholar. He wrote also Troparia, or hymns for the feasts of the Nativity and the Epiphany. (Fabric. Bibl. Gr. vol. X. p. 62.9.) 48. Trapezuntius (TpoTrefbui'Tios) of Trape- zus or Trebizond. The surname of George Tra- pezuntius is taken, not from the place of his birth, for he was a native of Crete (Nic. Comnenus Pa- padopoli says of Cbandace (Candia?), the capital of the island), but from the former seat of his family. His contemporary. Cardinal Bessarion, commonly designates him " Cretensis." He was born 4th April, a.d. 1396, and came into Italy probably about a. d. 1428, as he was invited into that country by Franciscus Barbaru<, a Venetian noble, to teach Greek in Venice after the departure of Franciscus Philelphus who left that city in that year. George received the freedom of the city from the senate. It appears from his commentary on Cicero's Oration for Q. Ligarius, that he learned Latin (Nic. Comnenus Papadopoli says at Padua) under Victorinus of Feltre, who was also the teacher of Theodore Gaza. After a few years he removed from Venice, and, after several ineffectual attempts to establish himself as a teacher in differ- ent towns, settled at Rome, where he was made professor of philosophy and polite literature, with a salary from the Papal government ; and where his lectures were attended by hearers from Italy, France, Spain, and Germany. The year of his settlement at Rome is not ascertained. The ac- count of Boissardus, who says {Icones Viror. Illustr.) " Primus omnium Graeccrum Graecas literas docuit summa cum laude utpote qui clarebat A. Chr. 1430 Eugenio IV. pontificatum tenente," is not accurate, as Eugenius did not become pope till 1431. Tri- themius says that he flourished at Rome in the time of Eugenius IV., A. D. 1435, which may be true ; at any rate, he was at Rome before the council of Florence, a. I). 1439. He had become eminent in Italy before 1437, when he wrote to the Byzantine emperor, Joannes or John II., exhorting him to disregard the promises of the council of Basel, and to attend the council which was to be summoned at Ferrara, in Italy ; but it is not clear from what part of Italy the letter was written. He was GEORGIUS. 255 secretar}% according to Hody, to the two popes, Eugenius IV. and Nicholas V. (who acceded to the papal crown a. d. 14 47), but according to other state- ments he received the appointment from Nicholas V. apparently about a. d. 1450. He occupied for many years a positionof unrivalled eminence at Rome, as a Greek scholar and teacher, and a translator of the Greek authors ; but the arrival of many scholars whom Nicholas invited to that city, and the su- perior reputation of the version of Aristotle's Pro- blemata^ made by Theodore Gaza subsequently to George's version of the same treatise, and the attacks of Laurentius Valla, threw him into the shade. Valla attacked him because he had cen- sured Quintilian ; and this literary dispute led to a bitter personal quarrel between Valla and George ; but after a time they were reconciled. Poggio, the Florentine, had also a dispute with George, who boxed his antagonist's ears, in the presence of the pope's other secretaries, a tolerable proof of the greatness of the provocation, or the irritability of George's temper. For some time George had Bes- sarion for his patron, but he lost his favour by his attack on the reputation of Plato, in maintaining the rival claims of Aristotle. George ceased to teach as professor in A. d. 1450, perhaps on his appointment as papal secretary. Beside the duties of his professorship and his secretaryship, he was much engaged in translating into Latin the v/orks of Greek authors ; but, from the haste with which they were brought out, arising from his anxiety to receive the promised payment for them, they appeared in an imperfect or mutilated form. Having lost the favour of Nicholas, who was alienated from him, as George himself states, be- cause he refused to allow his versions of certain Greek philosophers and fathers to appear under the names of others, and perhaps also by the intrigues of his rivals, he went to Naples, to the court of Al- fonso the Magnanimous, who gave him a respectable salary ; but he was, after a time, reconciled to the pope by the friendly offices of Franciscus Philel- phus, and returned to Rome about A. D. 1453. In A. D. 1465 he visited his native island, and from thence went to Constantinople. On his return by sea from Constantinople to Rome, he was in imminent danger of shipwreck, and, in his peril, he besought the aid of the martyr, Andreas of Chios, who had a few months before suffered mar- tyrdom at Constantinople ; and he made a vow that if he escaped and came safely to his destina- tion, he would write in Latin the narrative of his martyrdom. He fulfilled his vow about two years afterwards, and embodied in the narrative an ac- count of the circumstances which led him to write it. In his old age George's intellect failed, and he sunk into second childhood. His recollection was completely lost in literary matters, and he is said to have forgotten even his own name. In this crazy condition he wandered about the streets of Rome in a worn cloak and with a knotted staff. According to some accounts, this wreck of his intellect was thf result of a severe illness ; others ascribe it to grief and mortification at the trifling reward which he received for his literary labours. A story is told of him (Boissard, l.c. that having received of the pope the trifling sum of 100 ducats for one of hia works which he had presented to him, he threw the money into the Tiber, saying, "Periere laborea,