Gregory Antiochos ( gr, Γρηγόριος Ἀντίοχος, Grēgorios Antiochos) was a 12th-century

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

official and author.

Life and career

Gregory Antiochos was born in

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...

, the capital of the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

, some time around 1125. He hailed from an obscure family, but his father, whose name is unknown was sufficiently to found a small female convent at the

Forum Bovis The Forum of the Ox ( la, Forum Bovis, gr, ὁ Bοῦς, meaning "the Ox") was a public square ( la, Forum) in the city of Constantinople (today's Istanbul). Used also a place for public executions and torture, it disappeared completely after the ...

. Antiochos was apparently an only child, and received an excellent education under Nicholas Kataphloron (whose funeral oration he held in 1160),

Nicholas Hagiotheodorites Nicholas Hagiotheodorites ( gr, Νικόλαος Ἁγιοθεοδωρίτης, Nikolaos Hagiotheodōritēs; died 1175) was a Byzantine scholar, official, and Metropolitan of Athens. The Hagiotheodorites family first appears in the early 12th cen ...

, and

Eustathius of Thessalonica Eustathius of Thessalonica (or Eustathios of Thessalonike; el, Εὐστάθιος Θεσσαλονίκης; c. 1115 – 1195/6) was a Byzantine Greek scholar and Archbishop of Thessalonica. He is most noted for his contemporary account of the sa ...

. Closely tied to the capital's intellectual circles, already before 1159 he abandoned a literary career in favour of entering the civil service, soon becoming a member of the central imperial bureaucracy. Before 1175 Antiochos was judge of the ''velon'', and was sufficiently prominent to hold the funeral oration of Emperor

Manuel I Komnenos Manuel I Komnenos ( el, Μανουήλ Κομνηνός, translit=Manouíl Komnenos, translit-std=ISO; 28 November 1118 – 24 September 1180), Romanization of Greek, Latinized Comnenus, also called Porphyrogennetos (; "born in the purple"), w ...

() on 22 January 1181. His career under the subsequent regency and the regime of

Andronikos I Komnenos Andronikos I Komnenos ( gr, Ἀνδρόνικος Κομνηνός; – 12 September 1185), Latinization of names, Latinized as Andronicus I Comnenus, was Byzantine emperor from 1183 to 1185. He was the son of Isaac Komnenos (son of Alexio ...

() is unknown, but modern scholarship considers it plausible that he supported Andronikos, and was forced to resign under

Isaac II Angelos Isaac II Angelos or Angelus ( grc-gre, Ἰσαάκιος Κομνηνός Ἄγγελος, ; September 1156 – January 1204) was Byzantine Emperor from 1185 to 1195, and again from 1203 to 1204. His father Andronikos Doukas Angelos was a ...

(). Antiochos only reappears in as '' megas droungarios tes vigles'', with the rank of '' protonobelissimohypertatos''. His subsequent fate, and the date of his death, are unknown. He had numerous children, of whom the oldest became a monk.

Works

Antiochos left a varied corpus of letters, speeches, eulogies and epitaphs, which are an important source for contemporary Byzantine history. In his work, he appears "a defender not only of imperial omnipotence, but also of the

senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

; he favored 'democratic' phraseology but stood aloof from military commanders". One of his chief influences was his teacher, Eustathius of Thessalonica. In his works, he "gives life to books and fruits, and endows animals with reason".

References

Sources

* * {{Authority control 1120s births 12th-century Byzantine writers Byzantine officials Byzantine poets People from Constantinople Year of death unknown Byzantine letter writers