Editing Theodore Metochites

{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|name=Theodore Metochites
|image=File:Chora Church interior March 2008.JPG
|imagesize=250px
|caption=The ''[[logothetes tou genikou]]'' Theodore Metochites presenting the model of the renovated [[Chora Church]] to [[Christ Pantocrator]].
|office=''[[Mesazon|Mesazōn]]'' of the [[Byzantine Empire]]
|term_start=1305
|term_end=1328
|monarch=Andronikos II Palaiologos
|predecessor=[[Nikephoros Choumnos]]
|successor=[[Alexios Apokaukos]]
|birth_date=1270
|birth_place=[[Constantinople]]<br />(modern-day [[Istanbul]], [[Turkey]])<ref>K. Staikos, [https://books.google.com/books?id=jS7hAAAAMAAJ&q= ''The History of the Library in Western Civilization: From Constantine the Great to Cardinal Bessarion''], Oak Knoll Press, 2007, p. 427</ref>
|death_date=13 March 1332
|death_place=Constantinople<br />(modern-day [[Istanbul]], [[Turkey]])
}}

'''Theodore Metochites''' ({{langx|el|Θεόδωρος Μετοχίτης}}; 1270–1332) was a [[Byzantine Greeks|Byzantine Greek]] statesman, author, gentleman philosopher, and patron of the arts. From c. 1305 to 1328 he held the position of personal adviser (''[[mesazon|mesazōn]]'') to emperor [[Andronikos II Palaiologos]].

== Life ==
Metochites was born in [[Constantinople]] as the son of the [[archdeacon]] [[George Metochites]], a fervent supporter of the [[Second Council of Lyons|union of the Orthodox and Catholic Churches]]. After the [[Council of Blachernae (1285)|Council of Blachernae]] in 1285, his father was condemned and exiled, and Metochites seems to have spent his adolescence in the monastic milieux of [[Bithynia]] in [[Asia Minor]]. He devoted himself to studies of both secular and religious authors. When Andronicus II visited [[Nicaea]] in 1290/91, Metochites made such an impression on him that he was immediately called to the court and made [[Logothete of the Herds]]. Little more than a year later, he was appointed a Senator. Besides carrying out his political duties (embassies to [[Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia|Cilicia]] in 1295 and to [[Kingdom of Serbia (medieval)|Serbia]] in 1299), Metochites continued to study and to write. In 1312/13, he started learning astronomy from [[Manuel Bryennios]]; later he himself became the teacher of [[Nicephorus Gregoras]]. He was married with five sons and one daughter, Irene (spouse of [[List of Byzantine usurpers|John Komnenos Palaiologos]]).

Metochites' political career culminated in 1321, when he was invested as [[Grand Logothete]]. He was then at the summit of his power, and also one of the richest men of his age. Some of the money was spent on restoring and decorating the [[Chora Church|church of the Chora monastery]] in the northwest of Constantinople, where Metochites' [[donor portrait]] can still be seen in a famous [[mosaic]] in the [[narthex]], above the entrance to the nave.

Metochites' fortunes were, however, linked with his emperor's. After a few years of intermittent civil war, Andronicus II was overthrown in 1328 by his own grandson, [[Andronicus III Palaeologus]]. Metochites went down with him. He was deprived of his possessions and forced into exile in [[Didymoteicho]]n. In 1330, he was allowed to return to Constantinople. He then withdrew to Chora, where he died on 13 March 1332, having adopted the monastic name Theoleptos.

== Works ==
Metochites' extant œuvre comprises 20 ''Poems'' in [[dactylic hexameter]], 18 orations (''Logoi''), ''Commentaries'' on [[Aristotle]]'s writings on [[natural philosophy]], an introduction to the study of [[Ptolemy|Ptolemaic]] astronomy (''Stoicheiosis astronomike''), and 120 [[essay]]s on various subjects, the ''Semeioseis gnomikai''. Many of these works are still unedited.

'''Editions with English translations:'''

*Featherstone, J. M. 2000. ''Theodore Metochites’s Poems 'To Himself'.'' Introduction, Text, and Translation. Vienna. {{ISBN|3-7001-2853-3}}
Reviewed by Lazaris, S. 2002. "Jeffrey Michael Featherstone (Introduction, Text and Translation), Theodore Metochites’s poems 'to Himself' [Byzantina vindobonensia, XXIII], Wien : Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2000", ''Scriptorium'' 56, p. 328*-330*([https://www.academia.edu/795334/_Jeffrey_Michael_Featherstone_Introduction_Text_and_Translation_Theodore_Metochitess_poems_to_Himself_Byzantina_vindobonensia_XXIII_Wien_Verlag_der_Osterreichischen_Akademie_der_Wissenschaften_2000])

*Hult, K. 2002. ''Theodore Metochites on Ancient Authors and Philosophy: Semeioseis gnomikai 1–26 & 71.'' A Critical Edition with Introduction, Translation, Notes, and Indexes. With a Contribution by B. Bydén. Studia Graeca et Latina Gothoburgensia 65. Gothenburg. {{ISBN|91-7346-434-1}}
*Hult, K. 2016. ''Theodore Metochites on the Human Condition and the Decline of Rome. Semeioseis gnomikai 27–60''. A Critical Edition with Introduction, Translation, Notes, and Indexes. Studia Graeca et Latina Gothoburgensia 70. Gothenburg. {{ISBN|978-91-7346-889-3}}, [https://doi.org/10.21524/kriterium.4]
*Wahlgren, S. 2018. ''Theodore Metochites' Sententious Notes: Semeioseis gnomikai 61–70 & 72–81''. A critical edition with introduction, translation, notes, and indexes.Studia Graeca et Latina Gothoburgensia 71. Gothenburg. {{ISBN|978-91-7346-993-7}} [https://doi.org/10.21524/kriterium.5]
*Xenophontos, S. 2020. ''On Morals or Concerning Education''. Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 61. Cambridge, MA. {{ISBN|9780674244634}}

'''Editions without translation:'''

*Bydén, B. 2003. ''Theodore Metochites' Stoicheiosis astronomike and the study of natural philosophy and mathematics in early Palaiologan Byzantium''. 2nd rev. ed. Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis. Studia Graeca et Latina Gothoburgensia 66. Göteborg. {{ISBN|91-7346-459-7}}
*Polemis, I. D. 2015, ''Theodorus Metochita. Carmina'' (''Corpus Christianorum. Series Graeca''  83), Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 2015. {{ISBN|978-2-503-56456-2}}
*Polemis, I. D. and E. Kaltsogianni. 2019. ''Orationes''. Bibliotheca Scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana 2031. Berlin. {{ISBN|978-3-11-044099-7}}

==See also==
*[[Gregory Palamas]]

== Footnotes ==
{{Reflist}}

== References ==
*Beck, H.-G. 1952. ''Theodoros Metochites: Die Krise des byzantinischen Weltbildes im 14. Jahrhundert''. Munich.
*Ševčenko, I. 1962. ''La vie intellectuelle et politique à Byzance sous les premiers Paléologues: Études sur la polémique entre Théodore Métochite et Nicéphore Choumnos''. Corpus Bruxellense Historiae Byzantinae. Subsidia 3. Brussels.
*Ševčenko, I. 1975. Theodore Metochites, the Chora, and the Intellectual Trends of His Time. In Underwood, P. A., ed., ''The Kariye Djami'', vol. 4, ''Studies in the Art of the Kariye Djami and Its Intellectual Background'', London ({{Listed Invalid ISBN|0-691-99778-X}}, {{OCLC|577356}}), 17–91. (See also {{OCLC|24220728}}.)
*de Vries-van der Velden, E. 1987. ''Théodore Métochite: Une réévaluation''. Amsterdam. {{ISBN|90-70265-58-3}}
*Bydén, B. 2003. ''Theodore Metochites' Stoicheiosis astronomike and the study of natural philosophy and mathematics in early Palaiologan Byzantium''. 2nd rev. ed. Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis. Studia Graeca et Latina Gothoburgensia 66. Göteborg. {{ISBN|91-7346-459-7}}
Lauritzen, Frederick. ''Theodore Metochites: Statesman and Philosopher, 1270-1332.'' Steubenville, OH, Franciscan University Press, 2024.

== External links ==
* {{MathGenealogy|id=184631}}
*{{cite encyclopedia | editor = Thomas Hockey| last = Haramundanis | first = Katherine | title=Metochites &#91;Metoxites&#93;, Theodore &#91;Theodoros, Theoleptos&#93; | encyclopedia = The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers | publisher = Springer | year = 2007 | location = New York | page = 776 | url=http://islamsci.mcgill.ca/RASI/BEA/Metochites_BEA.htm | isbn=978-0-387-31022-0|display-editors=etal}} ([http://islamsci.mcgill.ca/RASI/BEA/Metochites_BEA.pdf PDF version])

{{Commons category|Theodore Metochites}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Metochites, Theodore}}
[[Category:1270 births]]
[[Category:1332 deaths]]
[[Category:14th-century Byzantine government officials]]
[[Category:Greek-language commentators on Aristotle]]
[[Category:14th-century Byzantine writers]]
[[Category:14th-century Byzantine historians]]
[[Category:14th-century Eastern Orthodox Christians]]
[[Category:Metochites family|Theodore]]
[[Category:Byzantine diplomats]]
[[Category:14th-century diplomats]]
[[Category:Logothetes]]
[[Category:13th-century Greek educators]]
[[Category:14th-century Greek scientists]]
[[Category:14th-century Greek educators]]
[[Category:13th-century Greek philosophers]]
[[Category:14th-century Greek philosophers]]
[[Category:13th-century Greek mathematicians]]
[[Category:14th-century Greek mathematicians]]
[[Category:13th-century Greek astronomers]]
[[Category:14th-century Greek astronomers]]
[[Category:Monastery prisoners]]