Listed 2 sub titles with search on: Biographies for destination: "MYRINA Ancient city TURKEY".
536 - 582
Agathias, the son of Mamnonius, a rhetorician, was born, as it seems, in 536 or
537 A. D., at Myrina, a town at the mouth of the river Pythicus in Aeolia, and
received his education in Alexandria, where he studied literature. In 554 he went
to Constantinople, where his father then most probably resided, and studied for
several years the Roman law. He afterward exercised with great success the profession
of an advocate, though only for the sake of a livelihood, his favourite occupation
being the study of ancient poetry; and he paid particular attention to history.
His profession of a lawyer was the cause of his surname Scholastikos (Suidas,
s. v. Agathias), which word signified an advocate in the time of Agathias. Niebuh
believes, that he died during the reign of Tiberius Thrax, a short time before
the death of this emperor and the accession of Mauritius in 582, at the age of
only 44 or 45 years. Agathias, who was a Christian (Epigr. 3, 5, and especially
4), enjoyed during his life the esteem of several great and distinguished men
of his time, such as Theodorus the decurio, Paulus Silentiarius, Eutychianus the
younger, and Macedonius the ex consul. He shewed them his gratitude by dedicat
ing to them several of his literary productions, and he paid particular homage
to Paulus Silentiarius, the son of Cyrus Florus, who was descended from an old
and illustrious family.
Agathias is the author of the following works :
1. Daphniaka, a collection of small love poems, divided into nine books; the poems
are written in hexametres. Nothing is extant of this collection, which the author
calls a juvenile essay.
2. Kuklos, an anthology containing poems of early writers and of several of his
contemporaries, chiefly of such as were his protectors, among whom were Paulus
Silentiarius and Macedonius. This collection was divided into seven books, but
nothing of it is extant except the introduction, which was written by Agathias
himself. However, 108 epigrams, which were in circulation either before he collected
his Knklos, or which he composed at a later period, have come down to us. The
last seven and several others of these epigrams are generally attributed to other
writers, such as Paulus Silentiarius, &c. The epigrams are contained in the
Anthologia Graeca, and in the editions of the historical work of Agathias. Joseph
Scaliger, Janus Douza, and Bonaventura Vulcanius, have translated the greater
part of them into Latin. The epigrams were written and published after the Daphniaka.
3. Agathiou Scholastikou Murinaiou Historion E. "Agathiae Scholastici Myrinensis
Historiarum Libri V". This is his principal work. It contains the history
from 553-558 A. D., a short period, but remarkable for the important events with
which it is filled up. The first book contains the conquest of Italy by Narses
over the Goths, and the first contests between the Greeks and the Franks; the
second book contains the continuation of these contests, the description of the
great earthquake of 554, and the beginning of the war between the Greeks and the
Persians; the third and the fourth books contain the continuation of this war
until the first peace in 536; the fifth book relates the second great earthquake
of 557, the rebuilding of St. Sophia by Justinian, the plague, the exploits of
Belisarius over the Huns and other barbarians in 558, and it finishes abruptly
with the 25th chapter.
Agathias, after having related that he had abandoned his poetical occupation for
more serious studies, tells us that several distinguished men had suggested to
him the idea of writing the history of his time, and he adds, that he had undertaken
the task especially on the advice of Eutychianus. However, he calls Eutychianus
the ornament of the family of the Flori, a family to which Eutychianus did not
belong at all. It is thcrefore probable that, instead of Eutychianus, we must
read Paulus Silentiarius: Niebuhr is of this opinion. Agathias is not a great
historian; he wants historical and geographical knowledge, principally with regard
to Italy, though he knows the East better. He seldom penetrates into the real
causes of those great events which form the subjects of his book: his history
is the work of a man of business, who adorns his style with poetical reminiscences.
But he is honest and impartial, and in all those things which he is able to understand
he shews himself a man of good sense. His style is often bombastic; he praises
himself; in his Greek the Ionic dialect prevails, but it is the Ionic of his time,
degenerated from its classical purity into a sort of mixture of all the other
Greek dialects. Nothwithstanding these deficiences the work of Agathias is of
high value, because it contains a great number of important facts concerning one
of the most eventful periods of Roman history.
Editions: Agathiou Scholastikou peri tes Basileias Ioustinianou, tomoi
E., ed. Bonaventura Vulcanius, with a Latin translation, Lugduni, 1594. The Parisian
edition, which is contained in the " Corpus Script. Byzant." was published
in 1660; it contains many errors and conjectural innovations, which have been
reprinted and augmented by the editors of the Venetian edition. Another edition
was published at Basel (in 1576?). A Latin translation by Christophorus Persona
was separately published at Rome, 1516, fol., and afterwards at Augsburg, 1519,
4to.; at Basel, 1531, fol., and at Leyden, 1594, 8vo. The best edition is that
of Niebuhr, Bonn. 1828, 8vo., which forms the third volume of the " Corpus
Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae." It contains the Latin translation and the
notes of Bonaventura Vulcanius. The Epigrams form an appendix of this edition
of Niebuhr, who has carefully corrected the errors, and removed the innovations
of the Parisian edition.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Sep 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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