Agapetus

Agapetos was a late antique Eastern Roman cleric and writer who lived in the first half of the 6th century.

Little is known about the life of Agapetus - not to be confused with Pope Agapitus I of the same name or the Western Roman consul of the year 517. He was a deacon (probably at the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople ) and lived at the time of Emperor Justinian I , whose teacher he is said to have been according to some later sources.

Agapetos probably wrote around 530 (some researchers favor a later dating) in ancient Greek a " prince's mirror " for Justinian, the so-called Ekthesis Kephalaion Parainetikon . The text, which lists the rules by which a good emperor should follow, contains 72 short articles. Although neither original nor literarily demanding, the Ecthesis , which was influenced by (Christian) Neoplatonism, developed an impact far beyond Eastern Rome and late antiquity: In the Middle Ages , translations of the script circulated throughout Europe, which had a lasting impact on the state theory of many states. The text was printed for the first time in 1509, and it was popular at school until the 18th century.

Editions and translations

• Peter Bell (translator): Three Political Voices from the Age of Justinian: Agapetus - Advice to the Emperor; Dialogue on Political Science; Paul the Silentiary - Description of Hagia Sophia . Liverpool 2009 (English translation).
• Wilhelm Blum (transl.): Byzantine prince mirrors (= library of Greek literature . Volume 14). Anton Hiersemann, Stuttgart 1981, ISBN 3-7772-8132-8 , pp. 59–80 (German translation, without original text)
• Agapetos deacon. The prince mirror of the emperor Justinianos . For the first time critical ed. by Rudolf Riedinger. Athens 1995 (with parallel German translation of the text). [no critical issue, cf. G. Prinzing, Byzantine Journal 91 (1998) 577-579]

literature

• Adolf Jülicher : Agapetos 7 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume I, 1, Stuttgart 1893, Col. 734.
• Patrick Henry: A mirror for Justinian. The “Ecthesis” of Agapetus Diaconus . In: Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 8, 1967, pp. 281-308.
• Renate Frohne: Agapetus Diaconus: Investigations into the sources and the history of the effects of the first Byzantine prince mirror . Diss. Tübingen 1984.
• Wilhelm Blum:  Agapetos. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 14, Bautz, Herzberg 1998, ISBN 3-88309-073-5 , Sp. 685-688.

Web links

• Literature by and about Agapetos in the catalog of the German National Library