Evagrius Scholasticus and Nikephoros Kallistos Xanthopoulos describe Agathias as a rhetor (" public speaker ").

Evagrius Scholasticus alludes to Agathias ' work, but he doesn't seem to have had access to the full History.

He must have lived after a poem of Claudian's which he appears to be familiar with ( after 394 – 397 AD ), but before Agathias Scholasticus ' reference to him as a " recent author.

The dating of the event to 551: as a law student, Agathias could be in his early twenties, which would place his birth to c. 530.

Agathias expresses his hope that the Alemanni would assume better manners through prolonged contact with the Franks, which is by all appearances, in a manner of speaking, what eventually happened.

* Agathias, Hist.

Other sources include the histories of Agathias, Menander Protector, John Malalas, the Paschal Chronicle, the chronicles of Marcellinus Comes and Victor of Tunnuna.

In Justinian's era, and partly under his patronage, Byzantine culture produced noteworthy historians, including Procopius and Agathias, and poets such as Paul the Silentiary and Romanus the Melodist flourished during his reign.

* Agathias begins to write a history beginning where Procopius finished his work.

Leslie Kurke contends that " Aesop was a popular contender for inclusion in the group "; an epigram of the 6th century CE poet Agathias ( Palatine Anthology 16. 332 ) refers to a statue of the Seven Sages, with Aesop standing before them.

Not surprisingly, perhaps, the Byzantine chronicler Agathias recorded the rumour in Constantinople that the Byzantines suspected Theudebert of planning an invasion of Thrace.

A game of tabula played by Eastern Roman Emperor | Byzantine Emperor Zeno ( emperor ) | Zeno in 480 and recorded by Agathias in 530 circa because of a very unlucky dice throw for Zeno, as he threw 2, 5 and 6 and was forced to leave eight pieces prone to capture.

3 and Agathias iv.

A brother of Agathias is mentioned in primary sources, but his name has not survived.

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.

John of Epiphania reports that Agathias practiced his profession in the capital.

While Agathias mentions these buildings, he fails to mention his own role in constructing them.

Literature, however, was his favorite pursuit, and Agathias remains best known as a poet.

But he also composed over a hundred epigrams, 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 ).

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 ).

After Justinian closed Academy in AD 529, according to the historian Agathias, its remaining members looked for protection under the rule of Sassanid king Khosrau I, carrying with them precious scrolls of literature and philosophy, and to a lesser degree of science.

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 ), which is sometimes cited as the closing date of " Antiquity ".

* J. D. Frendo, Agathias: The Histories in Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae ( translation with introduction and short notes ), vol.

* A. Kaldellis, ' Agathias on history and poetry ', in Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 38 ( 1997 ), pp 295 – 306

Bahram IV (), was twelfth Sassanid King of Persia ( 388 – 399 ), son and successor of Shapur III of Persia ( 383 – 388 ), under whom he had been governor of Kerman ; therefore he was called Kermanshah ( Agathias iv.

The last " Greek " philosophers of the revived Akademia in the 6th century were drawn from various parts of the Hellenistic cultural world and suggest the broad syncretism of the common culture ( see koine ): Five of the seven Akademia philosophers mentioned by Agathias were Syriac in their cultural origin: Hermias and Diogenes ( both from Phoenicia ), Isidorus of Gaza, Damascius of Syria, Iamblichus of Coele-Syria and perhaps even Simplicius of Cilicia.

The earliest description of tabula is in an epigram of Byzantine Emperor Zeno ( 476 – 481 ), given by Agathias of Myrine ( 527 – 567 ), who describes a game in which Zeno goes from a strong position to a very weak one after an unfortunate dice roll.

Christian writers after Eusebius are probably reliant on him, but include Pseudo-Justinus ( 3rd – 5th century ), Hesychius of Alexandria ( 5th century ), Agathias ( 536 – 582 ), Moses of Chorene ( 8th century ), an unknown geographer of unknown date, and the Suda ( Byzantine dictionary from the 10th century ).

: PG 88: Cosmas Indicopleustes, Constantine the Deacon, Joannes Climacus, Agathias Myrinæ, Gregory Bishop of Antioch, Joannes Jejunator ( Patriarch John IV of Constantinople ), Dorotheus the Archimandrite

The last " Greek " philosophers of the revived Academy in the 6th century were drawn from various parts of the Hellenistic cultural world and suggest the broad syncretism of the common culture ( see koine ): Five of the seven Academy philosophers mentioned by Agathias were Syriac in their cultural origin: Hermias and Diogenes ( both from Phoenicia ), Isidorus of Gaza, Damascius of Syria, Iamblichus of Coele-Syria and perhaps even Simplicius of Cilicia.

In the mid-6th century, the Byzantine historian Agathias of Myrina records, in the context of the wars of the Goths and Franks against Byzantium, that the Alemanni fighting among the troops of Frankish king Theudebald were like the Franks in all respects except religion, since

Agathias was a native of Myrina ( Mysia ).

Myrina is known to have erected statues to honor Agathias, his father Memnonius, and Agathias ' unnamed brother.

No further collection from various sources is recorded until the time of Justinian, when epigrammatic writing, especially of an amatory character, experienced a great revival at the hands of Agathias of Myrina, the historian, Paulus Silentiarius, and their circle.

The emperor Maurice ( r. 582-602 ) is never mentioned, suggesting that Agathias was dead by 582.

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 ).

A game of tabula played by Eastern Roman Emperor Zeno ( emperor ) | Zeno in 480 and recorded by Agathias in 530 circa because of a very unlucky dice throw for Zeno, as he threw 2, 5 and 6 and was forced to leave eight pieces alone.

Meleager's Anthology was popular enough that it attracted later additions. Prefaces to the editions of Philippus of Thessalonica and Agathias were preserved in the Greek Anthology to attest to their additions of later poems.

Their ingenious but mannered productions were collected by Agathias into a new anthology, entitled The Circle ( Κυκλος ); it was the first to be divided into books, and arranged with reference to the subjects of the pieces.