MICHAEL VIII PALAEOLOGUS

born 1224?, Nicaea died Dec. 11, 1282, Thrace Nicaean emperor (125961) and then Byzantine emperor (126182), who in 1261 restored the Byzantine Empire to the Greeks after 57 years of Latin occupation and who founded the Palaeologan dynasty, the last and longest lived of the empire's ruling houses. Additional reading For the most authoritative recent biography, see D.J. Geanakoplos, Emperor Michael Palaeologus and the West, 12581282: A Study in Byzantine-Latin Relations (1959), with full bibliography. The most recent edition of Michael's so-called autobiography is H. Gregoire, Imperatoris Michaelis Palaeologi, De Vita Sua', Byzantion, 2930:447476 (195960). For further references, see G. Ostrogorsky, Geschichte des Byzantinischen Staates (1940; History of the Byzantine State, 1956); and S. Runciman, The Sicilian Vespers: A History of the Mediterranean World in the Later Thirteenth Century (1958).