NICETAS, David of Paphlagonia. — This name recurs in manuscripts in reference to a Byzantine writing from the 9th–10th century, although ancient historians such as Allacci in his diatribe *De Nicetis* questioned whether it referred to one or two authors.
Generally, the opinion prevailed that there was only one figure, namely N. David, whom Loparev identified as bishop of Dadybra in Paphlagonia. Recently, Vogt has argued that two individuals should be distinguished: N. of Paphlagonia, a disciple of Arethas of Caesarea and Photius, with whom he rivaled in eloquence, who lived under Leo VI (886–912), and N. David, a layman whose political activity extended into the reign of Nicephorus Phocas and who distinguished himself by his opposition to Photius. Both were laymen. This opinion, which the author intended to develop in the *Corpus Bruxellense*, seems the more probable.
The author intended to develop this in the *Corpus Bruxellense*, and it seems the more probable view.
N. David is the author of the biography of St Ignatius the Patriarch. The other writings would be the work of N. of Paphlagonia, namely the 20 panegyric orations published by Combeffa, to which Vogt added two more in honor of the apostles Peter and Paul, the exegesis on the poems of St Gregory of Nazianzus, and perhaps also the commentary on St Luke, of which only brief fragments remain.
The biography of St Ignatius is reproduced in *PG* 105, 488–573. In the same volume (15–488, 575–78), other writings are collected. The homilies on SS Peter and Paul are found in *Orientalia Christiana Analecta* 71 (1931), pp. 24–96.