JOHN, the historian of ancient Greece, was born in 1747, at Brechin, in Forfarshire. He distinguished himself greatly at the University of Glasgow, and at the age of twenty officiated for a short time as professor of Greek. From a dislike to public teaching, however, he resigned this office and went to London, intending to study science there. On returning from a short scientific tour on the Continent, he accepted an engagement as tutor in the family of Lord Hopetoun, a Scottish nobleman, who rewarded Gillies' services to his sons with a pension for life. He travelled with his pupils for some years on the Continent; and in 1784 returned home to complete his principal work, which he published two years later under the title of History of Ancient Greece, its Colonies and Conquests, in 4 vols. 8vo, or 2 vols. 4to. This work was chiefly valuable as giving a fair picture of the various states of Greece, and the progress of each in literature and the arts. The different parts of this picture are well distributed, and presented always in a lucid and sometimes in an interesting form. The learning displayed in the work is considerable, but the author's reflections never rise above mediocrity, and his style, though ambitious, is far from being effective. The book, however, enjoyed a great popularity in its day, and was translated into most of the living tongues of Europe. It was long a favourite text-book for schools, and lingered there after it had ceased to be used elsewhere, but it is now completely superseded. On the death of the illustrious Robertson, Gillies was appointed historiographer royal for Scotland, but he failed to preserve to that office the éclat thrown around it by his predecessor. Of his subsequent works, the best known are his View of the Reign of Frederick II. of Prussia, with a Parallel between that Prince and Philip II. of Macedon; and the Translation of Aristotle's Ethics and Politics; and afterwards, of his Rhetoric; History of the World from Alexander to Augustus; &c. None of these works, however, are likely to preserve his name. In his old age Gillies retired to Clapham in Surrey, where he died in 1836, in the ninetieth year of his age.