Acropolita, George

Acropolita, George one of the writers of Byzantine history, was born at Constantinople in 1220, and was brought up at the court of the emperor, John Ducas, at Nice. At the age of seventeen years he became a pupil of Theodorus Exopterygus in mathematics, poetry, and rhetoric; and at twenty-one held a learned discussion, before the emperor, with Nicholas the physician concerning solar eclipses, being made at length grand logothete. John Ducas sent him as ambassador to Larissa, to establish peace with Michael of Epirus. He was also constituted judge by the emperor to try Michael Comnenus. The emperor's son, Theodorus Lascaris, a pupil of Acropolita, appointed him governor of all the western provinces of his empire. About 1255 he made war upon Michael Angelus and was taken prisoner, but was liberated by the intervention of Michael Palaeologus, who sent him as his ambassador to Constantine, prince of Bulgaria. After his return, he devoted himself wholly to the instruction of youth intended for orders, but resigned the charge in 1267 to Holobolus. In 1272 he was appointed one of the judges in the cause of John Vecchus, patriarch of Constantinople; and in 1273 was sent to pope Gregory to treat of a union between the two churches. The following year he attended, with others of the Eastern Church, the Council. of Lyons; and at the fourth session, July. 6, he, in the name of the emperor, took an oath abjuring the so-called schism, receiving the Roman faith, and recognising the primacy of the papal chair. In 1282 he was sent as ambassador to John, prince of Bulgaria, and died immediately upon his return home, in the same year. His principal work is Historia Byzantina (Paris, 1651, fol.), in Greek and Latin. He also wrote, Treatise concerning Faith, Virtue, and the Soul: — Thirteen Prayers, used after the recapture of Constantinople by the Greeks: Exposition of the Orations of Greg. Nazianzen, etc. See Fabricius, Bibl. Graec. 6 448; Ward, Gresham Professors.