GEORGE SYNCCELLUS: Byzantine historian of the eighth century, who wrote a Chronographia (ed. J. Goar, Paris, 1652; W. Dindorf, 2 vols., Bonn, 1829), which is valuable for its extracts from other writers. J. J. Scaliger's text of the first book of the Chronicon of Eusebius is composed entirely of fragments preserved in the work of Syncellus. He received his surname from the fact that he was syncellus, or privy councilor. to Tarasius, patriarch of Constantinople (see Syncellus).

Bibliography: His works in 2 vols., ed. G. Dindarf, are in CSHB, Bonn, 1829. Consult: Krumbacher, Geschichte, pp. 118-120; DCB, ii. 650; H. Hurter, Nomenclator literarius, i. 734-735, Innsbruck, 1903; Ceillier, Auteurs sacres, xii. 155-156.

GEORGE OF TREBIZOND : Greek scholar and humanist in Italy; b. in Crete 1396; d. at Rome 1486. His ancestors had come from the city of Trebizond, hence his cognomen. He settled in Venice in 1420 as a teacher of Greek, philosophy, and rhetoric, taught for a number of years in Vicenza, and in 1442 removed to Rome, where he enjoyed the patronage of Eugenius IV. and particularly that of Nicholas V. He was a pronounced Aristotelian and made a great reputation as a translator and expounder of Aristotle. Through his bitter and unfair attacks on Bessarion, Gemistos Plethon, and the Platonic school he lost the favor of Nicholas; and so great was the general indignation against him that he would have been compelled to leave Italy had not King Alphonso V. given him protection at Naples. Later he was made papal abbreviator by his pupil Paul II. Besides translations from Plato and Aristotle, his writings include Latin translations from the Greek Church Fathers (e.g., the commentaries of Cyril and the Prceparatio evangelica of Eusebius), and two essays against the Greek Church to be found in Allatius, Grtecia orthodoxa (Rome, 1652).

Bibliography: Scattered notices are to be found in Fabricius-Harles, Bibliotheca Grceca, vols. iii., vii.-ix., xi., xii., Hamburg, 1793-1809; KL, v. 347; Lichtenberger, ESR, v. 534-535, Paris, 1878.

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