Editing Agathias

{{Short description|Byzantine poet and historian (c. AD 530–582/594)}}
{{For|the mountain of [[Crete]]|Mount Agathias}}{{Infobox writer
| name             = Agathias Scholasticus
| image            = 
| caption          = 
| native_name      = Ἀγαθίας σχολαστικός
| native_name_lang = grc
| birth_date       = c. 530
| birth_place      = [[Myrina (Aeolis)|Myrina]], [[Mysia]], [[Asia Minor]]
| death_date       = 582 or 594
| occupation       = poet, historian, lawyer
| language         = Ancient Greek
| genre            = history, poetry
| notableworks     = ''Histories'', ''Cycle of Agathias''
}}
'''Agathias Scholasticus''' ({{langx|grc|Ἀγαθίας σχολαστικός}}; {{circa|AD 530}}<ref name="PLRE">Martindale, Jones & Morris (1992), p. 23–25</ref>{{snd}}582<ref name="PLRE"/>/594) was a [[Greece|Greek]] [[poet]] and the principal [[historian]] of part of the reign of the Roman emperor [[Justinian I]] between 552 and 558.

== Biography ==
Agathias was a native of [[Myrina (Mysia)]], an Aeolian city in western [[Asia Minor]]. His father was Memnonius. His mother was presumably Pericleia. A brother of Agathias is mentioned in primary sources, but his name has not survived. Their probable sister Eugenia is known by name. The ''[[Suda]]'' clarifies that Agathias was active in the reign of the Roman emperor [[Justinian I]], mentioning him as a contemporary of [[Paul the Silentiary]], [[Macedonius of Thessalonica]] and [[Tribonian]].<ref>[[Suda]] s.lem. Agathias (Alpha, 112: Ἀγαθίας)</ref>

Agathias mentions being present in [[Alexandria]] as a law student at the time when an earthquake destroyed Berytus ([[Beirut]]).<ref name="PLRE"/> The [[law school of Berytus]] had been recognized as one of the three official law schools of the empire (533). Within a few years, as the result of the [[551 Beirut earthquake|disastrous earthquake of 551]],<ref name=LebEmbU.S.>[http://www.lebanonembassyus.org/country_lebanon/history.html Profile of Lebanon: History] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110128123851/http://www.lebanonembassyus.org/country_lebanon/history.html |date=January 28, 2011 }} Lebanese Embassy of the U.S.</ref><ref name=DTBcom>[http://www.downtownbeirut.com/AboutBeirut.html About Beirut and Downtown Beirut], DownTownBeirut.com. Retrieved November 17, 2007.</ref><ref>[https://www.fulltextarchive.com/page/History-of-Phoenicia7/#p2 History of Phoenicia], fulltextarchive.com. Retrieved November 17, 2007.</ref> the students were transferred to [[Sidon]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ikamalebanon.com/national_heritage/south_nh/sth_cities_nh/saida.htm |title=Saida (Sidon) |publisher=Ikamalebanon.com |access-date=2009-05-05 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090628084129/http://www.ikamalebanon.com/national_heritage/south_nh/sth_cities_nh/saida.htm |archive-date=2009-06-28 }}</ref> The dating of the event to 551: as a law student, Agathias could be in his early twenties, which would place his birth to {{circa|lk=no|530}}.<ref name="PLRE"/>

He mentions leaving Alexandria for [[Constantinople]] shortly following the earthquake. Agathias visited the island of [[Kos]], where "he witnessed the devastation caused by the earthquake". At the fourth year of his legal studies, Agathias and fellow students Aemilianus, John and Rufinus are mentioned making a joint offering to [[Michael (archangel)|Michael]] the [[Archangel]] at Sosthenium, where they prayed for a "prosperous future".<ref name="PLRE"/>

He returned to [[Constantinople]] in 554 to finish his training, and practised as an [[advocatus]] (''scholasticus'') in the courts. [[John of Epiphania]] reports that Agathias practiced his profession in the capital. [[Evagrius Scholasticus]] and [[Nikephoros Kallistos Xanthopoulos]] describe Agathias as a [[Rhetoric|rhetor]] ("public speaker"). The ''Suda'' and a passage of [[John of Nikiû]] call him "Agathias the scholastic".<ref name="PLRE"/><ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D%2392385 Perseus.Tufts.edu], Rhetor, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', at Perseus</ref> He is known to have served as pater civitatis ("Father of the City", effectively a [[Roman Magistrates|magistrate]]) of [[Smyrna]]. He is credited with constructing public [[latrine]]s for the city. While Agathias mentions these buildings, he fails to mention his own role in constructing them.<ref name="PLRE"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.uni-koeln.de/phil-fak/ifa/zpe/downloads/1989/079pdf/079103.pdf|format=PDF|first=H.S. |last=Sivan|title=Town, country and province in Late Roman Gaul|year=1989|website=uni-koeln.de}}</ref>

Myrina is known to have erected statues to honor Agathias, his father Memnonius, and Agathias' unnamed brother. He seems to have been known to his contemporaries more as an advocatus and a poet. There are few mentions of Agathias as a historian.<ref name="PLRE"/>

Few details survive of his personal life – mainly in his extant poems. One of them tells the story of his pet cat eating his [[partridge]]. Another (Gr.Anth. 7.220) responds to his seeing the tomb of the courtesan [[Lais of Corinth]], implying a visit to that city, which he refers to using the poetic name Ephyra. No full account of his life survives.<ref name="PLRE"/>

==Writings==
Literature, however, was Agathias' favorite pursuit, and he remains best known as a poet. Of his ''Daphniaca'', a collection of short poems in [[hexameter]] on 'love and romance' in nine books, only the introduction has survived.<ref name="PLRE"/> But he also composed over a hundred [[epigram]]s, which he published together with  epigrams by friends and contemporaries in a ''Cycle of New Epigrams'' or ''Cycle of Agathias'', probably early in the reign of emperor [[Justin II]] (r. 565–578). This work largely survives in the ''[[Greek Anthology]]''—the edition by [[Maximus Planudes]] preserves examples not found elsewhere.<ref name="PLRE"/> Agathias's poems exhibit considerable taste and elegance.

He also wrote marginal notes on the ''Description of Greece'' ({{lang|grc|Ἑλλάδος περιήγησις}}) of [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]].

===Histories===
[[File:Europe 533-600.jpg|thumb|Europe and the East Roman Empire, AD 533–600]]
Almost equally valued are Agathias's ''Histories'', which he started in the reign of Justin II. He explains his own motivation in writing it, as simply being unwilling to let "the momentous events of his own times" go unrecorded. He credits his friends with encouraging him to start this endeavor, particularly one Eutychianus.<ref name="PLRE"/> 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 Imperial army, under the command of general [[Narses]], against the [[Goths]], [[Vandals]], [[Franks]] and [[Persian people|Persians]].<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=1|wstitle=Agathias|volume=1|page=370}} This cites as authorities:
*''Editio princeps'', by [[Bonaventura Vulcanius|B. Vulcanius]] (1594)
*the Bonn ''Corpus Scriptorum Byz. Hist.'', by [[Barthold Georg Niebuhr|B. G. Niebuhr]] (1828)
*[[Jacques Paul Migne|Migne]], ''Patrologia Graeca'', lxxxviii.
*L. Dindorf, ''Historici Graeci Minores'' (1871)
*[[Wilhelm Siegmund Teuffel|W. S. Teuffel]], "Agathias von Myrine," in ''Philologus'' (i. 1846)
*[[Karl Krumbacher|C. Krumbacher]], ''Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur'' (2nd ed. 1897).</ref>

The work survives, but seems incomplete. Passages of his history indicate that Agathias had planned to cover both the final years of Justin II and the fall of the [[Huns]] but the work in its known form includes neither. [[Menander Protector]] implies that Agathias died before having a chance to complete his history. The latest event mentioned in the Histories is the death of the Persian king [[Khosrau I]] (r. 531–579);  which indicates that Agathias was still alive in the reign of [[Tiberius II Constantine]] (r. 578–582). The emperor [[Maurice (emperor)|Maurice]] (r. 582–602) is never mentioned, suggesting that Agathias was dead by 582.<ref name="PLRE"/>

[[Menander Protector]] continued the history of Agathias, covering the period from 558 to 582. [[Evagrius Scholasticus]] alludes to Agathias' work, but he doesn't seem to have had access to the full History.

According to the ''[[Catholic Encyclopedia]]'', Agathias's Histories "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."

According to the [[Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition|''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Eleventh Edition]], "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".<ref name="EB1911"/>

Christian commentators note the superficiality of Agathias' [[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" ([[Anthony Kaldellis|Kaldellis]]).

Agathias (''Histories'' 2.31) is the only authority for the story of Justinian's closing of the re-founded Platonic (actually [[Neoplatonism|neoplatonic]]) [[Platonic Academy|Academy]] in Athens (529), which is sometimes cited as the closing date of "[[Classical antiquity|Antiquity]]".<ref>{{cite book |title=A History of Greek Literature |last=Hadas |first=Moses |year=1950 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=0-231-01767-7 |page=273|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dOht3609JOMC&pg=PA273 }}</ref> The dispersed neo-Platonists, with as much of their library as could be transported, found temporary refuge in the [[Sasanian Empire|Persian]] capital of [[Ctesiphon]], and afterwards— under treaty guarantees of security that form a document in the history of [[freedom of thought]]— at [[Edessa, Mesopotamia|Edessa]], which just a century later became one of the places where Muslim thinkers encountered ancient Greek culture and took an interest in its science and medicine.

Agathias's ''Histories'' are also a source of information about pre-Islamic Iran, providing&mdash;in summary form&mdash;"our earliest substantial evidence for the [[Khwaday-Namag|Khvadhaynamagh]] tradition",<ref>Averil Cameron, "Agathias on the Sasanians" in ''Dumbarton Oaks Papers'', 23 (1969) p. 69.</ref> that later formed the basis of [[Ferdowsi]]'s ''[[Shahname]]'' and provided much of the Iranian material for [[Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari|al-Tabari]]'s ''History''.

[[File:Tabula - boardgame - Zeno game.svg|thumb|300px|A game of [[tabula (game)|τάβλι (tabula)]] played by Zeno in 480 and recorded by Agathias in ''circa''  530 because of a very unlucky dice result for Zeno. The game is nearly identical to [[backgammon]].<ref name="austin-zeno">Austin, Roland G. "Zeno's Game of τάβλη", ''The Journal of Hellenic Studies'' 54:2, 1934. p. 202-205.</ref>]]
Agathias recorded the earliest description of the rules of [[backgammon]], which he calls ''[[Tabula (game)|τάβλη (tabula)]]'' as it is still called in Greece, in a story relating an unlucky game played by the emperor [[Zeno (emperor)|Zeno]]. Zeno had a stack of seven checkers, three stacks of two checkers and two ''blots'', checkers that stand alone on a point and are therefore in danger of being put outside the board by an incoming opponent checker. Zeno threw the three dice with which the game was played and obtained 2, 5 and 6. The white and black checkers were so distributed on the points that the only way to use all of the three results, as required by the game rules, was to break the three stacks of two checkers into blots, thus exposing them to capture and ruining the game for Zeno.<ref name="austin-zeno"/><ref name="bell">Robert Charles Bell, ''Board and table games from many civilizations'', Courier Dover Publications, 1979, {{ISBN|0-486-23855-5}}, p. 33–35.</ref>

== Editions and translations of the ''Histories'' ==
*[[Bonaventura Vulcanius]] (1594)
*[[Barthold G. Niebuhr]], in ''Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae'' (Bonn, 1828)
*[[Migne|Jean P. Migne]], in ''[[Patrologia Graeca]]'', vol. 88 (Paris, 1860), col. 1248–1608 (based on Niebuhr's edition)
*[[Karl Wilhelm Dindorf]], in ''Historici Graeci Minores'', vol. 2 (Leipzig, 1871), pp.&nbsp;132–453.
*R. Keydell, ''Agathiae Myrinaei Historiarum libri quinque'' in ''Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae'', vol. 2, Series Berolinensis, [[Walter de Gruyter]], 1967
*S. Costanza, ''Agathiae Myrinaei Historiarum libri quinque'' (Universita degli Studi, Messina, 1969)
*J. D. Frendo, ''Agathias: The Histories'' in ''Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae'' (English translation with introduction and short notes), vol. 2A, Series Berolinensis, [[Walter de Gruyter]], 1975
*P. Maraval, ''Agathias, Histoires, Guerres et malheurs du temps sous Justinien'' (French), Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 2007, {{ISBN|2-251339-50-7}}
*A. Alexakis, ''Ἀγαθίου Σχολαστικοῦ, Ἱστορίαι'' (in Greek) Athens, Kanakis Editions, 2008, {{ISBN|978-960-6736-02-5}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
*A. Alexakis, "Two verses of Ovid liberally translated by Agathias of Myrina (''Metamorphoses'' 8.877-878 and ''Historiae'' 2.3.7)", in ''Byzantinische Zeitschrift'' 101.2 (2008), pp.&nbsp;609–616.
*A. Cameron, 'Agathias on the Sasanians', in ''Dumbarton Oaks Papers'', 23 (1969) pp 67–183.
*A. Cameron, ''Agathias'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970). {{ISBN|0-19-814352-4}}.
* {{Encyclopaedia Iranica|last=Chaumont|first=M.-L.|title=AGATHIAS|url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/agathias-byzantine-historian-b|volume=1|fascicle=6|pages=608-609}}
*A. Kaldellis, 'Things are not what they are: Agathias Mythistoricus and the last laugh of Classical', in ''Classical Quarterly'', 53 (2003) pp 295–300.
*A. Kaldellis, 'The Historical and Religious Views of Agathias: A Reinterpretation', in ''{{lang|fr|Byzantion. Revue internationale}}'', 69 (1999) pp 206–252.
*A. Kaldellis, 'Agathias on history and poetry', in ''Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies'', 38 (1997), pp 295–306
* {{citation | last=Martindale | first=John R. | last2=Jones | first2=A.H.M. | last3=Morris | first3=John | title=The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, Volume III: AD 527–641 | year=1992 | publisher=Cambridge University Press | isbn=0-521-20160-8 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=fBImqkpzQPsC}}
*W. S. Teuffel, 'Agathias von Myrine', in ''Philologus'' (1846)
*C. Krumbacher, ''{{lang|de|Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur}}'' (2nd ed. 1897)
*S. Smith, Greek Epigram and Byzantine Culture: Gender, Desire, and Denial in the Age of Justinian (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019).
*{{Catholic|wstitle=Agathias}}

== External links ==
{{commons category}}
*{{Wikisourcelang-inline|el|Αγαθίας ο Σχολαστικός|Ἀγαθίας ὁ Σχολαστικός}}
*[http://www.blackcatpoems.com/a/agathias.html Poems by Agathias] English translations
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Agathias}}
* {{Librivox author |id=1114}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20181003223430/http://www.sasanika.org/wp-content/uploads/AgathiasFinal.pdf Agathias on the Persians: excerpts from ''History''] (English)
*[http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2000/2000-04-19.html Gerald Bechtle, Bryn Mawr Classical Review of Rainer Thiel, ''Simplikios und das Ende der neuplatonischen Schule in Athen,'' Stuttgart, 1999] (in English).
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070125094625/http://www.tsuki-skyeterriers.co.uk/ ''Encyclopedia of Past Events'']

{{Byzantine historians}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Agathias}}
[[Category:Epigrammatists of the Greek Anthology]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek anthologists]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek historians]]
[[Category:Historians of Justinian I]]
[[Category:530s births]]
[[Category:6th-century deaths]]
[[Category:Byzantine literature]]
[[Category:Byzantine poets]]
[[Category:6th-century Greek poets]]
[[Category:6th-century Byzantine historians]]
[[Category:Aeolians]]
[[Category:Greek-language historians from the Roman Empire]]
[[Category:6th-century Byzantine writers]]