GREGORAS, a Greek historian, was born about the close of the 13th century, and flourished in the 14th, under the emperors Andronicus, John Paleologus, and John Cantacuzenus. He was a great favourite of the elder Andronicus, who made him librarian of the church of Constantinople, and sent him ambassador to the prince of Servia. He accompanied this emperor in his misfortunes, and afflicted at his death; after which he repaired to the court of the younger Andronicus, where he seems to have been well received; and it is certain that, by his influence over the Greeks, that church was prevailed on to refuse entering into any conference with the legates of Pope John XXII. But in the dispute which arose between Barlaam and Palamos, taking the part of the former, he maintained it zealously in the council that was held at Constantinople in 1351, for which he was cast into prison, and continued there till the return of John Palaeologus, who released him; after which he held a disputation with Palamos, in the presence of that emperor. He compiled a history, which in 11 books contains all that passed from 1204, when Constantinople was taken by the French, to the death of Andronicus Paleologus the younger, in 1341.—The best edition of this work is that of the Louvre, in Greek and Latin, in 1702.

Caliphus, a Greek historian, who flourished in the 14th century under the emperor Andronicus Paleologus the elder, wrote an ecclesiastical history in 23 books; 18 of which are still extant, containing the transactions of the church from the birth of Christ to the death of the emperor Phocas in 610.—We have nothing else but the arguments of the other five books, from the commencement of the reign of the emperor Heraclius, to the end of that of Leo the Philosopher, who died in the year 911. Nicephorus dedicated his history to Andronicus Paleologus the elder. It was translated into Latin by John Langius; and has gone through several editions, the best of which is that of Paris, in 1630.