PSELLUS, MICHAEL CONSTANTINE "the younger," (I0I8—c. 1079), Byzantine writer, was born at Nicomedia, or Constantinople, of a consular and patrician family. Under Con stantine Monomachus (1042-1054) he became one of the most influential men in the empire. As professor of philosophy at Constantinople he revived the cult of Plato at a time when Aris totle held the field. At the height of his success as a teacher he was recalled to court, where he became state secretary and ves tarch,, with the honorary title of uTraros T COV (prince of philosophers). Presently he entered the monastery of Olympus (near Prusa in Bithynia), where he assumed the name of Michael. But, finding the life little to his taste, he resumed his public career. Under Isaac Comnenus and Constantine Ducas he exer cised great influence, and was prime minister during the regency of Eudocia and the reign of his pupil Michael Parapinaces (1071-1078). It is probable that he died soon after the fall of Parapinaces.
In character Psellus was servile, unscrupulous and weak. But as a literary man, he will be remembered as the forerunner of the great Renaissance Platonists His works embraced politics, as tronomy, medicine, music, theology, jurisprudence, physics, gram mar and history.
Of his works, which are very numerous, many have not yet been printed. We may mention: Chronographia (from 976-5077) ; three Epitaphioi or funeral orations over the patriarchs Cerularius, Lichudes and Xiphilinus, and nearly Soo letters. The most important of his works have been published by C. Sathas, who has also edited the Chronographia in Methuen's Series (1899), in his MEG-ammo(?) ef3XtoOipcn, iv. 5. On Psellus himself see Leo Allatius, De Psellis et eorum scriptis (1634) ; J. E. Sandys, Hist. of Classical Scholarship (1906), i. 411; P. Wiirthlein, Rhetorische Studien, Paderborn (1919).