Nicephorus Gregoras  Nicephorus Gregoras, Nicephorus also
spelled Nikephoros   (born c. 1292, Heraclea Pontica, sultanate
of Rūm [now Eregli, Turkey]—died c. 1360, near Constantinople,
Byzantine Empire [now Istanbul, Turkey]), Byzantine humanist
scholar, philosopher, and theologian whose 37-volume Byzantine
History, a work of erudition, constitutes a primary documentary
source for the 14th century.  Having gained the favour of the
emperor Andronicus II Palaeologus (1282–1328) and of
ecclesiastics in Constantinople, Gregoras was entrusted with
diplomatic missions, including a legation to the Serbian king
Stephan Uroš III in 1326. With the downfall of his patrons,
however, Gregoras was, as was the custom, forced to retire to a
nearby monastery. Gregoras emerged victorious in a philosophical
disputation, accompanied by polemical tracts, against the monk
Barlaam of Calabria, an outspoken Aristotelian scholastic, and
was recognized as Constantinople’s leading academician. A
theological controversy with deep politi