GEORGE, known as Pisides or Pisida; a Byzantine writer of the 7th c., was, as his surname implies,' a native of Pisidia; but of his personal history nothing is known except that he bad been ordained a deacon, and that he held, either simultaneously or successively, the offices of " chartophylax," " seenophylax," and " referendariUs' in the "Great Church" (that of St. Sophia) at Constantinople. He is also believed to have accompanied the first expedition (622) of the emperor Heraclius against the Persians;- at all events, his earliest work, consisting of 1098 iambic trimeter verses, is devoted to such a description of that campaign, as could hardly have come from any other than an eye-witness. This composition was followed in 641 by verses containing the details of a futile attack on Constantinople, made by the Avail in 626, while the emperor was absent, and the Persian army in occupation of Chaldecon; and by a general survey of the exploits, both at home and abroad, of Heraclius down to the final overthrow of Chosroes in 627, which is believed to have been written before the end of 628. In addi tion to these three works, which have been edited by Bekker, we have, from the pen of George of Pisidia, a poem upon the creation of the world, containing in its present form 1910 tri meter iambic verses; a treatise on the validity of life in 262 verses; a controversial composition against Severus of Antioch, in 731 verses; two short poems upon the resur rection of Christ and upon the temple of the Virgin at Blachernae, respectively, and a prose encomium upon Anastasius the martyr. George of Pisidia is known to have
written several other works, which, however, are no longer extant; and there is no suf ficient reason for assigning to him the compilation of the C hronicon Paschale or the astronomical poem entitled Empedodis Spluera. As a versifier, George is correct and even elegant; as a chronicler of contemporary events, he is exceedingly useful; but the modern verdict on his merits as a poet has not confirmed that of those later Byzantine writers whose enthusiastic admiration led them to compare him with and even refer him to Euripides. Recent criticism is unanimous in characterizing his composition as arti ficial and almost uniformly dull.