The Cycle of Agathias

Abstract

Following the example of Meleager and Philip of Thessalonica, Agathias of Myrina, poet, lawyer and continuator of the Wars of Procopius, compiled in the sixth century A.D. an anthology of epigrams, generally known as the Cycle (κύκλος) which, together with those of Meleager and Philip, was incorporated into the later anthology of Constantine Cephalas and partially survives in the Palatine and Planudean anthologies. But unlike Meleager and Philip, Agathias included only the work of contemporaries, representatives of that Indian summer of Greek poetry which illuminates the age of Justinian. And it has always been assumed that the Cycle was published during Justinian's reign, and that the (unnamed) Emperor to whom Agathias' (surviving) preface is addressed is Justinian himself.But the arguments on which this dating is based are as flimsy as could well be imagined, and neglect moreover a number of material pieces of evidence which point decisively to a later date. P. Waltz, editor of the (alas unfinished) Budé Anthology, observes that the allusions to Italy and Rome in Agathias' preface (AP iv 3) ‘permettent d'en dater la publication des années qui suivent la reprise de Rome par Narsès’ in 553. Not a very helpful terminus post quem. In 553 Agathias was hardly more than 20. No one, surely, would wish to suggest that he published the Cycle before he was out of his teens.