THEODORE

See also:

• THEODORE METOCHITA

METOCHITA  [THEODOxos METOCHITES1, a Byzantine author, man of learning and statesman, who flourished during the reign of Andronicus II . Paiaeologus (1282-1328) . After the deposition of his patron by Andronicus III., Metochita was deprived of his office of great logothete (chancellor) and sent into exile . He was soon recalled, but retired from political life to a convent, where he died in 1332 . He was a man of very great learning, only surpassed by Photius and Michael Psellus . His pupil Nicephorus Gregoras, who delivered his funeral oration, calls him a " living library." Only a few of his numerous works have been preserved . The best known is 'Troµvnµarcaµol real aryµei6aeic yvwµucal, Miscellanea philosophica et historica (ed . C . G . Muller and T . Kiessling, 1821), containing some 12o essays; for a list of them see Fabricius, Bibliotheca graeca (ed . Harles), x .

417; in these he chiefly made use of

Synesius . Of his rhetorical pieces two have been published by C . N . Sathas in Msuaiwvucil 13itniia8ipc, (1872), and two poems on religious subjects by M . Treu (1895) . The poems, dealing mainly with contemporary and personal matters, are written in hexameter, not in the usual " political " verse . Metochita was also the author of works on philosophical and astronomical subjects .