George the Pisiihax {Georgius Pisidcs or Pisida') flourished about the middle of the 7th century. (This account is taken substantially from Smith, Dictionary of Biography, s. v.) Georj^e is described, in the manu- scripts of his writings, as deacon and \apTo(pv}u^, "rec- ord-keeper," or '2Ktvo(pv\aE. "keeper of the sacred ves- sels" of the Great Church (that of St. Sophia) at Con- sti.ntino])le. He appeals to have accompanied the em- peror Heraclius in his first expedition against the Per- sians, and to have enjoyed the favor both of that em- peror and of Sergius, 1 i.t nothing further is known of him. Among his writings are Li'f rtjv Kara UtpcriLv
EKcrrnartiov HnaKXciov toi' jSaniXfojc ciKpoaadg rpnc, De Frpeditume Heraclii Impei'atoris contra Persas Li- bri tres. 1 his work is mentioned by Suidas, and is probabl}- the earliest of the extant works of this writer. The three books are written in trimeter iambics, and contain 1098 verses. They describe the first expedition of Heraclius, whose valor and piety are immoderately praised, against the Persians, A.D. 622, when he at- tacked the frontier of Persia in the neighborhood of the Taurus. ndXfjtioc; 'AfiapiKoQ or 'AftapiKa, Bellum Avaricum or Avarica, a poem of one book of 541 trim- eter iambic verses, describing the attack of the Avars on Constantinople, and their repulse and retreat (A.D. 626) ; Elf.' Ti'ii' uyiai' tov Xniarov toi> 6eoi' iifuZi' avi'ia- Ta(jiv, In Sanctam Jesu Christi, Dei Nostri, Itcsurrec- tionem, consisting of 129 trimeter iambic verses, in which George exhorts Flavins Constantino, the son of Heraclius, to emulate the example of his father ; prob- ably written about A.D. 627. 'E4«»/f fpoi' i'jToi Kocr- fiovpyia, Ojms Sex Diertim sen Mundi Opifcium, a poem of 1910 iambic verses in the edition of (^lercius, who restored some lines omitted by previous editors. It has been supposed that this work has come down to us in a mutilated condition, for Suidas speaks of it as con- sisting of 3000 verses. But it is possible that the text of Suidas is coiTupt, and that we should read tig iirr] (^ifTxiAio instead of rpinxiXia. The poem has no ap- pearance of incompleteness. The Hexaemeron con- tains a prayer as if by the patriarch Sergius for He- raclius and iiis children. The poem was probably writ- ten about A.D. 629. Ei'e r'oi' fiuTaiov fiiov, De Vanitate
Vitw, 262 iambic verses ; Kara Htviipov, Contra Sever- iim, or Kara hiaaijiovc 'Eev))nnv 'Ai'rio\'fiac, Contra impium Severum Antiochice. This poem consists of 731 iambic verses. A passage of Nicephorus Callisti
GEORGIA
812
GEORGIA
(Jlist. Eccl. xviii, 48) has been undGrstood as declaring that George wrote a poem against .lohanncs Philopo- nus, and it has been supposed tliat I'hilopomis is aim- ed at in tliis poem under the name of Severus, while othi'rs liave sup(t(ised that Nicephorus refers to the Hexaemeron, and that Philoiioniis is attacked in tliat pooni under the name of I'roclus. But the words of Kicephorus do not require us to understand that George wrote against Pliiioi)onus at all. This poem against .Severus contains tlic passage to which Nicepliorus re- fers, and in which the IMonophysite opinions wliicli riiih>ponus licdil are attacked. V-jKioniov iIq rhi' liyi- nv ' \]'acjTanioi' itapTvpa, Encomium in Sanctum Anas- tasium Mdiiyrem, in prose ; E'(; Titv tv liXaxfpt'ctii; vaor, In Templum Deiparm Constant inopoli in Blachernis sltum ; a short poem in iambic verse. Some worlvs known or asserted to be extant have been ascribed to George, but without sufficient reason. Usher and oth- ers have conjectured tliat he was the compiler of the Chronicon Pa.ic/iale, but Quercius refutes the supposi- tion. Le lAing speaks of Greek commentaries on the epistles of Paul by George of Pisidia as being extant in the Imperial Library at Vienna, but they are not noticed in the catalogues of Lambecius and IJeiman- uus; and it is probable that Le Long's statement is erroneous. Some persons have improperly confound- ed George of Pisidia with George of Nicomedia, who lived two centuries later ; and Cave erroneously makes George of Pisidia archbishop of Nicomedia, although he correctly fixes the time in which he lived. The versification of George is correct and elegant, and in- harmonious verses are very rare. He was much ad- mired by the later Byzantine writers, and was very commonly compared with Euripides, to whom some did not hesitate to prefer him. But his poems, how- ever polished, are frequently dull, though in the Ile.r- aemeron there are some passages of a more elevated character. The Ilexd^meron and De Vanitnte Vitw, with such fragments as had been collected, with a Lat- in version by Fred. Morel, were first published in 4to, Paris, 1584. Some copies of the edition have the date 1585 in the title-page. The Ilexncmeron was also jjub- lished by Brunellus, as a work of Cyril of Alexandria, together with some poems of Gregory Nazianzen and other pieces (Rome, 1590, 8vo). Both pieces, with the fragments, were reprinted in the appendix to tlie Bib- liotheca Pati-um of La Bigne (Paris, 1(J24, fol.), and with the version of Morel, and one or two additional frag- ments, in the Paris edition of the Bihliotheca Patrum (1654, fol.), xiv, 389, etc. The Latin version of Jlorel is in the edition of the Bihliotheca (Lyon. 1677, fol.), xii, 32;5, etc. (Quercius, ut sup. ; Fabricius, Bibl. Gr. i, 185 ; vii, 450, 472, etc. ; viii, 612, 615 ; Cave, Hist. Lit. i, 583). — Smith, Dictionary ofGr. and Rom. Biography, ii, 253, 254.