Agis of Argos

Agis (/ˈeɪdʒɪs/; Greek: Ἄγις, gen.: Ἄγιδος) was an Ancient Greek poet from Argos, and a contemporary of Alexander the Great, whom he accompanied on his Asiatic expedition.[1] Quintus Curtius Rufus[2] as well as Arrian[3] and Plutarch[4] describe him as a sycophant, one of the basest flatterers of the king. Curtius calls him "the composer of the worst poems after Choerilus" ("pessimorum carminum post Choerilum conditor"), which probably refers rather to their obsequious, flattering character than to their worth as poetry. The Greek Anthology contains an epigram which is probably the work of this flatterer.[5][6][7]

Athenaeus mentions an Agis as the author of a work on the art of cooking (ὀψαρτυτικά).[8]

References

  1. ^ Schmitz, Leonhard (1867), "Agis (5)", in Smith, William (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. 1, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, pp. 73–74, archived from the original on 2009-04-12, retrieved 2008-05-23
  2. ^ Curtius, viii. 5
  3. ^ Arrian, Anabasis Alexandri iv. 9
  4. ^ Plutarch, De adulat. et amic. discrim. p. 60
  5. ^ Greek Anthology, vi. 152
  6. ^ Jacobs, Anthol. iii. p, 836
  7. ^ Zimmermann, Zeitschrift für die Alterth. 1841, p. 164
  8. ^ Athenaeus, xii. p. 516

Sources

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