a Greek poet of a singular character, flourished in the 59th Olympiad, or about 544 years before the Christian era. According to Plato, who is followed by Suidas, he was a native of Megara in Sicily, but Harpocratis contends for Megara in Greece; and Corsini has satisfactorily shewn that the latter statement is much more probable. Theognis commonly uses the Ionic dialect, and not the Doric of the Sicilians; and his verses afford several other indications of an Achaian origin. He speaks of himself as a person of superior birth. From his fellow-citizens, whoever they were, he experienced harsh treatment; and having been driven into exile with his wife Argyris, he found a place of refuge at Thebes. As he survived the Median war, b. c. 490, he must have reached a very advanced age; but how or where he terminated his career, we find no information. His remaining work consists of a series of ἀπόλυτα, or moral sentences, written in elegiac verse, and containing many pointed and striking sentiments, though some of them are not strictly moral. The name of the author's friend Cyrus is very frequently introduced. Of this work there are many separate editions. It is likewise to be found in Brunnck's "Gnomici Poetae Graeci," and in the first volume of Gaisford's "Poetae Minores Graeci." In the edition of Bekker (Lipsiae, 1815, 8vo), one hundred and fifty-one verses are printed for the first time, and the total number is thus raised to 1389. A more recent edition, with a critical commentary and notes, was published by F. Th. Welcker, Francof. 1826, 8vo.

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1 Corsini Fasti Attici, tom. iii. p. 109. 2 Clinton's Fasti Hellenici, vol. ii. p. 9.