In 1571, he was forced to flee his homeland for Naples when he became involved in a plot for an uprising against the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of the Battle of Lepanto.
[1] At Naples, he changed his name to Melissenos, echoing the Byzantine aristocratic family, and produced several works.
Covering the period 1258 to 1477, it is an important historical source, particularly for his eyewitness account of the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, although doubts regarding the authenticity of his material remain.
[1] Earlier scholarship believed that Melissenos was also responsible for forging a chrysobull ascribed to Emperor Andronikos II with the intention of legitimizing increased powers for himself as metropolitan.
[2] However, this position has more recently been challenged by Haris Kalligas, who has reevaluated the evidence and dates the bull as authentic to 1314.