Agapetus (deacon)

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

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

Agapetos written probably around 530 ( some researchers favor a later dating ) in ancient Greek a " mirror of princes " of Justinian, the so-called Ekthesis Kephalaion Parainetikon. The text, which sets forth rules by which a good Emperor should depend, consists of 72 short articles. Although neither original nor literary demanding that influenced by the (Christian) Neoplatonism Ekthesis unfolded an addition, reaching far beyond Ostrom and the late antique effect in the Middle Ages were circulating throughout Europe translations of Scripture, which coined the theory of the state in many countries sustainable. The text was first printed already in 1509, until the 18th century he was a popular school reading.

Translation

• Peter Bell ( translator's ): 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 ).
• William Blum ( translator's ): Byzantine prince mirror ( Library of Greek literature 14). Stuttgart 1981. ISBN 3-7772-8132-8
• Agapetos Diakonos. The prince of the Emperor Justinian mirror. For the first time critically edited. by Rudolf Riedinger. Athens 1995 ( with parallel German translation of the text). [ no critical edition, see G. Prinzing, Byzantine. Journal 91 (1998) 577-579 ]