Constantine is believed to have exiled those who refused to accept the Nicean creed — Arius himself, the deacon Euzoios, and the Libyan bishops Theonas of Marmarica and Secundus of Ptolemais — and also the bishops who signed the creed but refused to join in condemnation of Arius, Eusebius of Nicomedia and Theognis of Nicaea.

Theognis of Megara vented himself in couplets as an embittered aristocrat in a time of social change.

There is confusion also about his place of birth, " Megara ", which Plato for example understood to be Megara Hyblaea in Sicily, while a scholiast on Plato cites Didymus for the rival theory that the poet was born in a Megara in Attica, and ventures the opinion that Theognis might have later migrated to the Sicilian Megara ( a similar theory had assigned an Attic birthplace to the Spartan poet Tyrtaeus ).

Theognis seems to be hinting at a myth in which the jar contained blessings rather than evils.

Different scholars have different theories about the transmission of the text to account for the discrepancy yet it is generally agreed that the present collection actually contains too many verses under the name of Theognis: the collection appears in fact to be an anthology that includes verses by him.

Separatists have agreed with Theodor Bergk ( 1843 ) that the collection was originally assembled as the work of Theognis, into which a large admixture of foreign matter has somehow found its way, or they have believed it was compiled originally as a textbook for use in schools or else as a set of aristocratic drinking songs, in which some verses of Theognis happen to be strongly represented.

Quite recently Martin Litchfield West identified 306 lines as a core sequence of verses that can be reliably attributed to Theognis since they contain mention of Cyrnus and are attested by 4th century authorities such as Plato and Aristotle, though the rest of the corpus could still contain some authentic verses.

" According to this view, the verses were drinking songs in so far as the symposium was understood to be a microcosm of society, where multiple views were an aspect of adaptive behaviour by the embattled aristocracy, and where even eroticism had political symbolism: " As the polis envisaged by Theognis is degenerate, erotic relationships are filled with pain ..."

The ' seal ' has been theorized to be the name of Theognis or of Cyrnus or, more generally, the distinct poetic style or else the political or ethical content of the ' poems ', or even a literal seal on a copy entrusted to some temple, just as Heraclitus of Ephesus was said once to have sealed and stored a copy of his work at the Artemisium.

Nietzsche in the same passage ( Part I, section 5 ) makes some of his most controversial pronouncements, wondering for instance if "... the conqueror and master race, the Aryan, is not succumbing physiologically ," to a " dark, black-haired aboriginal " race of pre-Aryans It is a matter of scholarly debate whether or not Nietzsche intended such statements to be understood literally or figuratively and similarly there may be doubts about whether or not Theognis advocated eugenics or social selection when making such statements as this:

Charles Darwin represented a widespread preference for a biological interpretation of such statements when he commented on the above lines thus: " The Grecian poet, Theognis ... saw how important selection, if carefully applied, would be for the improvement of mankind.

Furthermore, Theognis can be read to imply there was a conflict between Eretria and Chalcis in the middle of the 6th century BC.

Theognis was conservative and unadventurous in his use of language, frequently imitating the epic phrasing of Homer, even using his Ionian dialect rather than the Dorian spoken in Megara, and possibly borrowing inspiration and entire lines from other elegiac poets, such as Tyrtaeus, Mimnermus and Solon.

Distinctions are frequently made between " good " () and " bad " (), a dichotomy based on a class distinction between aristocrats and " others ", typical of the period but usually implicit in the works of earlier poets such as Homer —" In Theognis it amounts to an obsession ".

Chapter 5, " Elegy and Iambus ", p. 117 and onwards, for a treatment of Theognis, Solon, and others.

Ancient sources record dates in the mid-sixth centuryEusebius dates Theognis in the 58th Olympiad ( 548 – 45 BC ), Suda the 59th Olympiad ( 544 – 41 BC ) and Chronicon Paschale the 57th Olympiad ( 552 – 49 BC ) yet it is not clear for example whether Suda in this case means a date of birth or some other significant event in the poet's life and, moreover, all three sources could have derived their dates from lines 773 – 82 under the assumption that these refer to Harpagus's attack on Ionia in the reign of Cyrus The Great.

However, the same lines have also been attributed to Theognis.

The authenticity of all the poetic fragments attributed to Solon is however uncertain-in particular, pederastic aphorisms ascribed by some ancient sources to Solon have been ascribed by other sources to Theognis instead.

This image is in fact a double herm, reputedly showing on one side the epic poet Homer ( whom Theognis often imitated ) and, on the other, the Athenian comic poet Menander, who lived two centuries after Theognis.

In spite of such self-disclosures, almost nothing is known about Theognis the man: little is recorded by ancient sources and modern scholars question the authorship of most of the poems preserved under his name.

" The quality of the verse in the end section is radically diverse, ranging from " exquisite and simple beauty " to " the worst specimens of the bungler's art ", and many scholars have rejected it as a spurious addition, including the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche ( see Nietzsche and Theognis below ).

It is possible ( but by no means certain ), that some ancient sources ( scholia to Aristophanes and the Suda ) are correct in identifying Theognis the tyrant with the minor tragic poet of the same name, known from Aristophanes ' mocking references to the frigidity of his poetry ( Acharnians 11 and 138, Thesmophoriazusae 170 ).

The writer, who was styled in antiquity the Hesiod or Theognis of gluttons, parodies the style of older gnomic poets ; most of his attention is given to fish, although some of the early fragments refer to appetizers, and there was also a section on wine.

While a few historians have suggested this as the date of the Lelantine War, it is more probable that Theognis refers to a second, smaller and even less known Lelantine War: " we are certainly not dealing with a ' Hundred Years Lelantine War '", remarks Robin Lane Fox.

Theognis enshrines his moral precepts in his elegies, and this was probably the custom of the rest ; it is improbable that there ever existed a species of poetry made up entirely of successive gnomes.

Eusebius and Theognis remained in the Emperor's favour, and when Constantine, who had been a catechumen much of his adult life, accepted baptism on his deathbed, it was from Eusebius of Nicomedia.

The 6th century BC poet Theognis also came from Megara.

In a major departure from Hesiod, the 6th-century BC Greek elegiac poet Theognis of Megara tells us:

The verses preserved under Theognis ' name are written from the viewpoint of an aristocrat confronted by social and political revolution typical of Greek cities in the archaic period.

A scene from Plato's philosophical work The Symposium, where Alcibiades, the archetypal Athenian aristocrat, arrives drunk at a party hosted by Agathon. Many of the poems of Theognis reflect on man's relation to wine, a symbolic focus for general reflections on the ideal of moderation.

Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker, sometime known as " the father of Theognidean criticism ", was the first modern scholar to edit the collection with a view to separating authentic verses from spurious additions ( 1826 ), Ernest Harrison ( Studies in Theognis 1902 ) subsequently defended the authenticity of the collection, and thus the scholarly world divided into two camps, which one recent scholar half-jokingly referred to as " separatists " and " unitarians " There have also been divisions within the camps.

In one of his seminal works, On the Genealogy of Morals, he describes the poet as a ' mouthpiece ' of the Greek nobility: Theognis represents superior virtues as traits of the aristocracy and thus distinguishes ( in Nietzsche's own words ) the " truthful " aristocrat from the " lying common man ".

They were followed some time after by Theognis Restilutus, or the personal history of the poet Theognis of Megara, deduced from an analysis of his existing fragments.

Lysias was able to escape from the house of Damnippus, where Theognis was guarding other aristocrats rounded up by the Thirty.

Fragments of Solon, Euenus and Mimnermus have been preserved, in a very confused state, from having been written, for purposes of comparison, on the margins of the manuscripts of Theognis, whence they have often slipped into the text of that poet.

With the exception of Theognis, whose gnomes were fortunately preserved by some schoolmaster about 300 BCE, only fragments of the Gnomic Poets have come down to us.

The elegiac verses attributed to Theognis present him as a complex character and an exponent of traditional Greek morality.

Theognis wrote in the archaic elegiac style.

The collection of verses attributed to Theognis has no overall structure, being a continuous series of elegiac couplets featuring frequent, sudden changes in subject and theme, in which different people are addressed and even the speaker seems to change persona, voicing contradictory statements and, on a couple of occasions, even changing sex.

First he allowed Eusebius of Nicomedia, who was a protégé of his sister, and Theognis to return once they had signed an ambiguous statement of faith.

The most famous New Ionic authors are Anacreon, Theognis, Herodotus, Hippocrates, and, in Roman times, Aretaeus, Arrian, and Lucian.

Phocylides ( Φωκυλίδης ὁ Μιλήσιος ), Greek gnomic poet of Miletus, contemporary of Theognis of Megara, was born about 560 BC.

Theognis of Megara (, Théognis ho Megareús ) was a Greek lyric poet active in approximately the sixth century BC.

Sympotic topics covered by Theognis include for example wine, politics, friendship, war, life's brevity, human nature, wealth, love and so on.