EUSTATHIUS, archbishop of Thessalonica, was a native of Constantinople, and flourished during the latter half of the 12th century. He was at first a monk, and afterwards teacher of rhetoric in his native city. In 1174 or 1175 he was chosen bishop of Myra in Lycia, and shortly afterwards archbishop of Thessalonica. Such of his works as have descended to our times display a comprehensiveness and variety of erudition that fairly entitle him to the praise of being the most learned man of his day. The most important of these is his Commentary on the Iliad and Odyssey of Homers a work valuable as comprising large extracts from the scholia of other critics, whose works have now perished, such as Apion, Heliodorus, Aristarchus, Aristophanes of Byzantium, &c. This commentary was first published at Rome, 1542-50, in 4 vols., and was reprinted at Leipsic, in 1825-29, under the editorial care of G. Stallbaum. Eustathius also wrote a commentary on Dionysius the geographer, first printed by Robert Stephens in 1547, and frequently reprinted since. A commentaryon Pindar, which he is known to have written, has been lost. He is also the author of various religious works, chiefly against the prevailing abuses of his time, which almost anticipate, though in a milder form, the denunciations of Luther. The year of Eustathius’s death is uncertain, some placing it in 1194, and others a few years later. The funeral orations pronounced in his honour by Euthynius and Michael Chômâtes are still in MS. in the Bodleian library.