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. Events June 8 - St. ... Events Maurice I succeeds Tiberius II Constantine as Byzantine Emperor. ... Events Births Empress Kogyoku of Japan = Empress Saimei Deaths Gregory of Tours, bishop and historian Categories: 594 ... Anatolia (Greek: ανατολη anatole, rising of the sun or East; compare Orient and Levant, by popular etymology Turkish Anadolu to ana mother and dolu filled), also called by the Latin name of Asia Minor, is a region of Southwest Asia which corresponds today to the Asian portion of Turkey. ... Poets are authors of poems, or of other forms of poetry such as dramatic verse. ... A historian is a person who studies history. ... Justinian I depicted on one of the famous mosaics of the St. ...

He studied law at Alexandria, returned to Constantinople in 554 to finish his training and practised as an advocate (scholasticus) in the courts. Literature, however, was his favourite pursuit. Antiquity and modernity stand cheek-by-jowl in Egypts chief Mediterranean seaport Located on the Mediterranean Sea coast, Alexandria (in Arabic, الإسكندرية, transliterated al-ʼIskandariyyah) is the chief seaport in Egypt, and that countrys second largest city, and the capital... Map of Constantinople. ...

He wrote a number of short love-poems in epic metre, called Daphniaca. He also put together an anthology of epigrams by earlier and contemporary poets and himself, under the title of a Cycle of New Epigrams. Agathias re-edited the Greek Anthology, which preserves about a hundred epigrams by Agathias that show considerable taste and elegance. He also wrote marginal notes on the Periegetes of Pausanias. Greek Anthology (also Anthologia Graeca) is a collection of poems, mostly epigrams, that span the Ancient and Byzantine periods of Greek Literature. ... Pausanias was Greek traveller and geographer of the 2nd century A.D., who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. ...

After the death of Justinian (565), some of Agathias's friends persuaded him to write the history of his own times. This work in five books, On the Reign of Justinian, continues the history of Procopius, whose style it imitates, and is the chief authority for the period 552-558. It deals chiefly with the struggles of the Byzantine army, under the command of the eunuch Narses, against the Goths, Vandals, Franks and Persians. Events January 22 - Eutychius is deposed as Patriarch of Constantinople by John Scholasticus. ... Procopius was a prominent Byzantine scholar of Late Antiquity (500?-565?). The writings of Procopius of Caesarea, in Palestine, are the primary source of information for the rule of the emperor Justinian. ... Events July - Battle of Taginae: The Byzantine general Narses defeats and kills Totila, king of the Ostrogoths. ... Events May 7 - In Constantinople, the dome of the Hagia Sophia collapses. ... Narses (478-573) was, along with Belisarius, one of the two great generals in the service of the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I. during the so-called Reconquest that took place during the Justinians reign. ... Invasion of the Goths: a late 19th century painting by O. Fritsche portrays the Goths as cavalrymen. ... The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century and created a state in North Africa, centered on the city of Carthage. ... The Franks or the Frankish people were one of several west Germanic tribes who entered the late Roman Empire from Frisia as foederati and established a lasting realm (sometimes referred to as Francia) in an area that covers most of modern-day France and the western regions of Germany (Franconia... The Persians of Iran (officially named Persia by West until 1935 while still referred to as Persia by some) are an Iranian people who speak Persian (locally named Fârsi by native speakers) and often refer to themselves as ethnic Iranians as well. ...

"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." —Catholic Encyclopedia.

"The author prides himself on his honesty and impartiality, but he is lacking in judgment and knowledge of facts; the work, however, is valuable from the importance of the events of which it treats" (Enc. Brit. 1911). Gibbon contrasts Agathias as "a poet and rhetorician" with Procopius, "a statesman and soldier." Christian commentators note the superficiality of Agathias' nominal Christianity: "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." (Catholic Encyclopedia) No overt pagan could expect a public career during the reign of Justinian, yet the depth and breadth of Agathias' culture was not Christian (Kaldellis). The Catholic Encyclopedia (also referred to as the Old Catholic Encyclopedia today) is an English-language encyclopedia published in 1913 by the The Encyclopedia Press, designed to give authoritative information on the entire cycle of Catholic interests, action and doctrine. // History The writing of the encyclopedia began on January 11... Supporters contend that the Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1910-1911) represents the sum of human knowledge at the beginning of the 20th century; indeed, it was advertised as such. ... Edward Gibbon (1737-1794). ...

Agathias (Histories 2.31) is the only authority for the story of Justinian's closing of the re-founded Platonic (actually neoplatonic) Academy in Athens, 529, often cited as the closing date of Antiquity. The dispersed scholars, with as much of their library as could be transported, found temporary refuge in the Persian capital of Ctesiphon, and return— under treaty guarantees of security that form a document in the history of freedom of thought— to Edessa, where just a century later the forces of Islam encountered the classical Greek culture of Antiquity, especially its science and medicine. (see Bechtle) Neoplatonism (also Neo-Platonism) was a school of philosophy that took shape in the 3rd century A.D. Though based on the teachings of Plato and the Platonists, it interpreted Plato in many new ways, so that Neoplatonism was quite different from what Plato had written, though many Neoplatonists would... An academy is an institution for the study of higher learning. ... It has been suggested that Greco-Roman be merged into this article or section. ... The Persian Empire is the name used to refer to a number of historic dynasties that have ruled the country of Persia (Iran). ... Ctesiphon (Parthian: Tyspwn as well as Tisfun) is one of the great cities of ancient Mesopotamia and the capital of the Iranian Parthian Empire and its successor, the Sassanid Empire, for more than 800 years located in ancient Iranian province of Khvarvaran. ... Freedom of thought (also called freedom of conscience) is the freedom of an individual to hold a viewpoint, or thought, regardless of anyone elses view. ... This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

External links

• Encyclopædia Britannica 1911:Agathias
• Catholic Encyclopedia: Agathias
• Agathias on the Persians: excerpts from Agathias' History (in English)
• Gerald Bechtle, Bryn Mawr Classical Review of Rainer Thiel, Simplikios und das Ende der neuplatonischen Schule in Athen, Stuttgart, 1999 (in English).

Editions of the Histories

• B. Vulcanius (1594)
• Joseph D. Frendo, in Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae, vol. 2A, Series Berolinensis, Berlin, 1975
• B.G. Niebuhr for the Corpus SS. Byzant. Bonn, 1828
• P.G., vol. 88, 1248-1608
• Dindorf, Hist. Graeci minores (1871), II, 132-453.

The Patrologia Graeca is an edited collection of writings by the Christian Church Fathers in the Greek language in 161 volumes, produced in 1857–1866 by J.P. Migne It includes both the Eastern Fathers and those Western authors who wrote before Latin became predominant the West in the 3rd...

References

This article incorporates text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, which is in the public domain. This article incorporates text from the public domain Catholic Encyclopedia. Supporters contend that the Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1910-1911) represents the sum of human knowledge at the beginning of the 20th century; indeed, it was advertised as such. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... The Catholic Encyclopedia (also referred to as the Old Catholic Encyclopedia today) is an English-language encyclopedia published in 1913 by the The Encyclopedia Press, designed to give authoritative information on the entire cycle of Catholic interests, action and doctrine. // History The writing of the encyclopedia began on January 11...

• Averil Cameron, Agathias Oxford University Press, Oxford (1970)
• Anthony Kaldellis, "Things are not what they are: Agathias Mythistoricus and the last laugh of Classical " in Classical Quarterly vol 53 (2003) pp 295-300.
• Kaldellis, "The Historical and Religious Views of Agathias: A Reinterpretation," in Byzantion. Revue internationale des etudes byzantines vol 69 (1999) pp 206-252.
• Kaldellis, "Agathias on history and poetry," in Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies vol 38 (1997), pp 295-306
• W. S. Teuffel, Agathias von Myrine in Philologus (1846)
• C. Krumbacher, Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur (2nd ed. 1897)