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and by Hiidfon in the 2J vol. of the Gcographi Minorcs 

 Oxun. 170^ Fabr. Bib. Gi-xc. torn. iii. p. 40. 



AGATHIAS, one of tlic By/antine hillorians, vnl 

 bom at Myriiia, a city of vEohs ; and having Ihidicd the 

 law at Alexandria, exeicifed the proftdion of an advocate 

 ut SmvTna, and acquired the appellation of Scholnftiius, from 

 the fcliooU in which lawyers were inllriiAed. Allhongli in 

 the intvodudion to his hiftoi7, he fpcaks favourably of 

 the Cliriilians, it docs not appear that he himfcU" was of 

 this number : Vollius and others believe that he was a Pagan ; 

 Pagi and Fabricius maintain, that he was a Chriitian. It is 

 certain tliat no inveftives againll Chriillanity have efcaped 

 either him or Procopius. He was undoubtedly a man of 

 candour and moderation. In fpeaking of the Germans, who 

 had a multitude of deities, and ofiercd cruel facrifices, he 

 fays, they w ho are in error are rather objecls of conimifer- 

 ation, than of contempt and hatred; for all men aim at truth : 

 jf they are in error, it is not the fault of their will but of 

 their judgment, as they are attached to opinions once cm- 

 braced by them. He alfo laments, in the introduftion to 

 bis hillory, that wars and battles are fo much the iubjefts 

 of poems and hiilorics ; which, as he fays, he cannot 

 afcribe to the liars, nor to fate, as fome do : for if the 

 world were governed by fate, there would be an end of 

 choice ; and there would be no longer virtue an'.ong men, 

 l!or any room for inllrudlion or improvement in arts and 

 fciences. Nor are wars and contentions, he adds, agreeable 

 to the mind of God, who is iupremcly good : they mull 

 therefore be afcribtd to the avarice and ambition of men. 

 His hiitory was written after the year 565, when Juftinian 

 died, and pubhfhcd after the year 593. It was undertaken 

 at the delire of Eutychianus, fecretaiy of (late, who is 

 fuppofcd to have furniilicd materials ; commences with 

 the 26th year of the emperor's reign, A. D. 553, where 

 Procopius ends, and clofes with the flaughter of the Huns 

 in 559. He invelligates the caufes of the events which he 

 records, and often gives his opinion of them without dif- 

 guife. His ftyle is eafy and florid, though Sigonius has re- 

 prefented him as a low and unpoliflied writer. He alfo 

 ■ivrote 80 Epigrams, whicii are preferved in the Antholo- 

 gia ; and, as Suidas informs us, other pieces, partly in profe 

 and partly in vcrie, intitltd, " Daphniaca." Agathias's 

 hiitory was publiihed by Vulcanius, with a tranilation and 

 Botes, at Ley den, in 4to. A. D. 1594 ; and elegantly 

 reprinted at Paris in fol. in 1660. Fabric. Bib, Grxc. 

 torn. vi. p. 260. Lardner's Works, vol. ix. p. 85. 



Ag AT Hi AS, a very famous Grecian ftatuary, bom at 

 Ephefus. According to fome accounts, this was the 

 fcnlptor who executed the celebrated Apollo Belvidere ; 

 and the Gladiator Repelkns ; but other accounts, more to 

 be reUed upon, ftate, that the artills who produced thofe 

 works are certainlv unknown. 



AGATHO, the Athenian, a tragic and comic poet, 

 was the difciple of Prodicus and Socrates, applauded by 

 Plato, in his Protagoras, (Oper. torn. i. p. 315. Ed. Ser- 

 rani) for his beauty and virtue, and defcribed by Arifto- 

 phanta in his comedy of the Fro,";s, (p. 124. Ed. Kufteri) as 

 a good poet and the darling of his friends ; but feverely 

 cenfured for his morals in the comedy, intitled Thefmopho- 

 riazufic, (p. 483.) He is rcprefented as the favourite of 

 Euripides, and alfo of Paufanias the Ceramian, whom he 

 accompanied, as /Elian infoi-ms us (Var. Hift. 1. ii. c. 21. 

 torn. i. p. 120. Ed. Gronov.), to the court of Archelaus, 

 king of Macedon, where he continued till his death. jElian 

 fays, that he often qtnrrelled with Paufanias for the fake of 

 enjoying the exquifite pleafiire which a reconciliation afforded 

 bim. His firfl tragedy obtained the prize j and he was 

 crowned iii the prcfencc of 30,000 perfoiis, in the Alh year 



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of the 90th olympiad, B. C. 417. There is nothing no\T 

 extant of Agatho, except a few quotations preferved by 

 Arillotle, Athenius, iElian and others. His compo- 

 fitions abounded fo much with antithcles, as to give him oc- 

 cafion for faying to a perfon, who wilhed him to expunge 

 them, " you do not confider that you would rend Agatho 

 from himfelf." See ^lian (Var. Hill. 1. xiv. c. 13. tom. ii. 

 p. 947.) Athcmvus (Deipnofophiil. 1. v. p. 211. Ed. Ca- 

 faiib.) cites the following antitliciis : " If I tell you the truth, 

 1 fliall not pleafe you ; and if I pleafe you, I (hall not tell yon 

 the truth." The antithefes recorded by Ariftotle, (Eudtmi- 

 orum. 1. V, c. 2. and c. 4. tom. ii. p. 243. 244. and Rhetor. 

 1. ii. c. 24. tom. ii. p. 58 1. Ed. Du Val.) are the three 

 following : " The only thing impoITible to God, is to caufe 

 that not to be made that has been made : " " fortune loves 

 art, and art loves fortune : " " it is probable, that a great 

 many improbable things may happen to mortals." 



AGATHO, Pope, a native of Palermo, who was ad- 

 vanced fr»m a moiiafteiy to the papal fee, in 679. At this 

 time the controverfy occalioned by the Moxothflitks agi- 

 tated the Chiillian church, and the hrll exercife of Aga- 

 tho's pontifical authority vras that of convening fynods in 

 the wcftern provinces, to decide concerning their doctrine. 

 Thcfe fvnods having declared the Monothelitc doclrine to 

 be heretical, Agatho fent legates on behalf of the wtdem 

 church to the general council held at Conftantinople in 680. 

 At this council the Monothehtes were folemnly condemned. 

 Thus Agatho, by his legates, renounced a doftrine which 

 had been coufimied by the edict of a former council, and 

 fanftioned by the approbation of his predeceffor, Pope Ho- 

 norius ; and he concurred in the condemnation of Honorius, 

 and enforced by penal laws the fenttnce of the council. In 

 this inftance the infallibility of Honorius, and that of Aga- 

 tho and the fixth council, are in dirett oppofition. Tt is 

 obferved, hkewile, as a fatl worthy of notice in the hiftory 

 of the papal power, that this council was fummoned by the 

 emperor ; that no appeal was made to the decifion of former 

 popes ; and that no pecidlar deference was manifefted to the 

 authority of the biliiop of Rome. After the diffolution of 

 this council, Agatho direfted his attention to the temporal 

 interell of his fee, and particularly to the remiffion of the 

 fine paid to the emperors on the election of a new pope. 

 He died, A.D. 682. His fanftity was held in fuch vene- 

 ration that, if we credit the account of Platina, his kifs 

 was an inftant cure for the leprofy. His letters againft the 

 Monothehtes, addrefled to the emperors Conitantine, He- 

 radius, and Tiberius, Gr. and Lat. ; and to Ethelred, king 

 of the Mercians, and Theodore, archbifhop of Canterbury, 

 Lat. ; and the abbot Sexulphus, which lalt is faid to be fup- 

 pofititious and written by fome Englilh monk, are prclened 

 in the records of the fixth council, A. D. 68©, Harduin's 

 Concilia, tom. iii. Another letter, granting peculiar privi- 

 leges to the monafteiy of Weremouth, may be feen In 

 Dugdale's Monallicon Anghcanum. Dupin's Hift. Seventh 

 Centuiy, vol. iii. p. 37. Bower. 



AGATHOCLES, king, or tyrant of Sicily, was the 

 fon of Carfinus, a potter, oi Rhegium, and born at Therms 

 in Sicily. In confequence of lirange dreams of his mother, 

 whilit (he was pregnant, to which the father paid a fuper- 

 ftitiuus regard, the infant was expofed in the fields, as foon 

 as it was born, and committed to the care of a perfon who 

 was to watch it till it died. The mother, hearing of his 

 condition, took the child and entnifted it with her brother 

 Heraclides, and called it, after her father's name, Agatho. 

 cles. At the age of feven years, he was introduced to the 

 father, and the iecret of his prefenation was communicated 

 to liim by the mother. The diilreffi occafioned by felf-re- 

 proach in the recolleftioa of hiu ccndacl, wai foon fucceeded 



by 



