22/2/2021 Theodore Metochites -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia

Theodore Metochites
Theodore Metochites, (born c. 1270, Nicaea, Nicaean empire [now İznik, Turkey]—died
March 13, 1332, Constantinople, Byzantine Empire [now Istanbul, Turkey]), Byzantine
prime minister, negotiator for Emperor Andronicus II Palaeologus, and one of the principal
literary and philosophical scholars of the 14th century.

The son of George Metochites, a prominent Eastern Orthodox cleric under Emperor
Michael VIII Palaeologus and a leading advocate of union with the Latin church, Theodore
became a favourite of Emperor Andronicus II and undertook various diplomatic missions
to enlist help against the encroaching Ottoman Turks. In a vain attempt to reverse
Byzantium’s military and political decline through an alliance with Serbia, Metochites, in
1298, led an embassy to the Serbian court at Skoplje and arranged the marriage of
Andronicus’s five-year-old daughter, Simonis, to Tsar Milutin. As a result, Serbia, although
militarily stronger than Byzantium and acknowledged as ruler of formerly Byzantine
Macedonia, admitted the universal sovereignty of the Eastern emperor. In his Presbeutikos
(“Embassy Papers”), Metochites left a valuable historical account of these negotiations as
well as a concrete description of Byzantine influence on Slavic royalty.

Promoted to megas logothetes (“grand logothete,” or “chancellor”), Metochites married

Irene Palaeologus and, as a relative of the ruling dynasty, directed Byzantine political
affairs from 1321 to 1328, when Andronicus fell from power. Because of his fidelity to
Andronicus II, he was deprived of his wealth and exiled by Andronicus III. In 1331 he
retired to the Chora Monastery (now Kariye Museum), in Constantinople, to continue his
scholarly pursuits. He directed the material and artistic restoration of the monastery, the
mosaic work of which, particularly the extant piece showing him offering the church of
Chora to an enthroned Christ, represents the acme of 14th-century Byzantine mosaic art.

Metochites’ voluminous writings range from scientific to theological matters. His best-
known work, Hypomnematismoi kai semeioseis gnomikai (“Personal Comments and
Annotations”), commonly designated the “Philosophical and Historical Miscellany,” is an
encyclopaedic collection of tracts and essays on classical thought, history, and literature,
comprising more than 80 Greek authors. Other treatises on physics, astronomy, physiology,

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and Aristotelian psychology survive only in Latin translations. His commentaries on the
Dialogues of Plato were an important influence on the 15th-century Platonic renaissance.

Citation Information
Article Title: Theodore Metochites
Website Name: Encyclopaedia Britannica
Publisher: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Date Published: 09 March 2020
URL: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Theodore-Metochites
Access Date: February 22, 2021

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