Agathias

Agathias
Agathias
A Byzantine historian and man of letters, born at Myrina in Asia Minor about 536

Catholic Encyclopedia. . 2006.

Agathias
    Agathias
     Catholic_Encyclopedia Agathias
    A Byzantine historian and man of letters, born at Myrina in Asia Minor about 536; died at Constantinople 582 (594?). He is a principal authority for the reign of Justinian (527-65), and is often quoted by ecclesiastical historians. He was probably educated at Constantinople, spent some time at Alexandria, and returned to the royal city in 554, where he took up the profession of law and became a successful pleader at the bar. His tastes, however, were literary, and he soon produced nine books of erotic poetry (Daphniaca), also epigrams and sonnets, many of which are preserved in the so-called Palatine Anthology. He wrote also marginal notes on the Periegetes of Pausanias. He is the last in whom we can yet trace some sparks of the poetic fire of the classic epigrammatists. At the age of thirty he turned to the writing of history and composed a work in five books "On the Reign of Justinian." It deals with the events of 552-558, and depicts the wars with the Goths, Vandals, and Franks, as well as those against the Persians and the Huns. He is the continuator of Procopius, whom he imitates in form and also in the abundance of attractive episodes. Agathias, it has been said, is a poet and a rhetorician, while Procopius is a soldier and a statesman. The former loves to give free play to his imagination, and his pages abound in philosophic reflection. He is able and reliable, though he gathered his information from eye- witnesses, and not, as Procopius, in the exercise of high military and political offices. He delights in depicting the manners, customs, and religion of the foreign peoples of whom he writes; the great disturbances of his time, earthquakes, plagues, famines, attract his attention, and he does not fail to insert "many incidental notices of cities, forts, and rivers, philosophers, and subordinate commanders." Many of his facts are not to be found elsewhere, and he has always been looked on as a valuable authority for the period he describes. There are reasons for doubting that he was a Christian, though it seems improbable that he could have been at that late date a genuine pagan. Dr. Milligan thinks (Dict. of Chr. Biogr. I, 59) that "he had gained from Christianity those just notions of God and religion to which he often gives expression, but that he had not embraced its more peculiar truths." His history was edited by B.G. Niebuhr for the "Corpus SS. Byzant." (Bonn, 1828; P.G., LXXXVIII, 1248-1608), and is also in Dindorf, "Hist. Graeci minores" (1871), II, 132-453.
    KRUMBACHER, Gesch. d. byzant. Litt. I, 240-242; BURY, History of the Later Roman Empire (London, 1889), II, 179-81.
    THOMAS J. SHAHAN

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VIII. — New York: Robert Appleton Company. . 1910.


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  • Agathias — (Beiname Scholastikos; * um 536 in Myrina in Kleinasien; † um 582 in Konstantinopel) war ein oströmischer Historiker und Dichter. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Leben und Werke 2 Literatur 2.1 …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Agathias — or Agathias Scholasticus (c. AD 536 582/594), of Myrina, an Aeolian city in western Asia Minor, was a Greek poet and the historian who is a principal source for that part of the reign of Justinian I covered in his history.He studied law at… …   Wikipedia

  • Agathias — le Scolastique (vers 530 vers 580) est un poète et historien grec né à Myrina en Asie Mineure. Sa mère Périkleia meurt à Constantinople alors qu il avait trois ans. Son père Memnon exerce le métier de rhéteur. Agathias étudie la rhétorique à… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Agathias — Agathias,   genannt Scholạstikos, byzantinischer Dichter und Historiker, * um 530/532, ✝ um 579/582. Aus seiner Epigraphensammlung kamen 100 eigene Epigraphen in die Anthologia Palatina. Agathias setzte die Geschichte des Prokopios von Kaisareia …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Agathĭas — Agathĭas, mit dem Beinamen Scholastikos, griech. Dichter und Geschichtschreiber, um 530–582 n. Chr., aus Myrina in Ätolien, lebte seit 554 in Konstantinopel als Advokat. Durch seinen »Kyklos«, eine stofflich geordnete Sammlung eigner und… …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • Agathias — Agathias, aus dem äolischen Myrina, Zeitgenosse des Kaisers Justinian, setzte die Geschichte des Procopius fort; diese werthvolle Schrift ist zuletzt in Niebuhrs Byzantinern, Bonn 1828, herausgegeben worden. Von seinen Epigrammen und kleinen… …   Herders Conversations-Lexikon

  • AGATHIAS — sive ut se in Epigrammatis vocat, Agathius, historicus Graecus, natus Myrinae, quae in asia veterum Aeolensium colonia fuit, ad ostia Pythici fluv. sita, ut ipse in Praefatione ait, ubi et se patre Memnoniô progagatum asserit, ac iuri et legibus… …   Hofmann J. Lexicon universale

  • Agathias — ▪ Byzantine historian and poet born c. 536, Myrina, Aeolis, Asia Minor died c. 582       Byzantine historian and poet of part of Justinian I s reign.       After studying law at Alexandria, he completed his training at Constantinople and… …   Universalium

  • Agathias Scholastikos — Agathias (Beiname Scholastikos; * um 536 in Myrina in Kleinasien, † um 582 in Konstantinopel) war ein oströmischer Historiker und Dichter. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Leben und Werke 2 Literatur 2.1 Überli …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Agathias von Myrina — Agathias (Beiname Scholastikos; * um 536 in Myrina in Kleinasien, † um 582 in Konstantinopel) war ein oströmischer Historiker und Dichter. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Leben und Werke 2 Literatur 2.1 Überli …   Deutsch Wikipedia

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