GLYCAS, MICHAEL, Byzantine historian (according to some a Sicilian, according to others a Corfiote), flourished during the 12th century A.D. His chief work is his Chronicle of events from the creation of the world to the death of Alexius I. Corn nenus (I'18). Glycas was also the author of a treatise and a number of letters on theological questions. A poem of some 600 "political" verses, written during his imprisonment on a charge of slandering a neighbour and containing an appeal to the em peror Manuel, is still extant. The exact nature of his offence is not known, but the answer to his appeal was that he was deprived of his eye-sight by the emperor's orders.
Editions: "Chronicle and Letters," in J. P. Migne, Patrologia Graeca, clviii. ; poem in E. Legrand, Bibliotheque grecque vulgaire, i.; see also F. Hirsch, Byzantinische Studien (1876) ; C. Krumbacher in Sitzungsberichte bayer. Acad., 1894; C. F. Bahr in Ersch and Gruber's Allgemeine Encyklopiidie.