Agatho

, or Agathon, a Greek poet, of Athens, and not of Samos as Gyraldi asserts, wrote several tragedies and comedies, of which only some fragments remain. Aristotle speaks of one, “The Flower,” with great praise. His first tragedy received the prize at the Olympic games. He was a man of expensive manners, and kept a magnificent table; at which the wits of his days used to assemble. Grotius has collected the fragments left of his dramas from Aristotle and Athenseus, in his collection of the fragments of Greek tragedies and comedies. He was the first who hazarded invented subjects. His comedies were written with elegance, but his tragedies abounded in antitheses and symmetrical ornaments. He lived about 735 B. C; but Barthelemi places him much earlier. ²