GILLIES, JOHN (1747-1836), Scottish historian and classi cal scholar, was born at Brechin, in Forfarshire. In 1784 he com pleted his History of Ancient Greece, its Colonies and Conquests (published 1786). On the death of William Robertson (1721 93) , Gillies was appointed historiographer-royal for Scotland. In his old age he retired to Clapham, where he died on Feb. 15, 1836.
Of his other works, none of which is much read, the principal are : View of the Reign of Frederic II. of Prussia, with a Parallel between that Prince and Philip II. of Macedon (1789) , rather a panegyric than a critical history ; translations of Aristotle's Rhetoric (1823) and Ethics and Politics (1786-97) ; of the Orations of Lysias and Isocrates (1778) ; and History of the World from Alexander to Augustus (1807), which, although deficient in style, was commended for its learning and research.