Theognis

, an eminent Greek poer, was born in the fifty-ninth olympiad, or about 550 years before Christ. He calls himself a Megarian, in one of his verses; meaning, most probably, Megara, in Achaia, as appears also from his own verses, for he prays the gods to turn away a threatening war from the city of Alcathous and Ovid calls the same Megara, Alcathoe. We have a moral work- of his extant, of somewhat more than a thousand lines, which is acknowledged to be an useful summary of precepts and, reflections; which, however, has so little of the genius and | fire of poetry in it, that, as Plutarch said, it may more properly be called carmen than poema. These “Tw^cm, Sententiae,” or “Precepts,” are given in the simplest manner, without the least ornament, and probably were put into verse merely to assist the memory. Athenacus reckons this author among the most extravagant voluptuaries, and cites some of his verses to justify the censure; and Suidas, in the account of his works, mentions a piece entitled “Exhortations, or Admonitions,” which, he says, was stained with a mixture of indecency. The verses we have at present are, however, entirely free from any thing of this kind, whence some have supposed that they were not left so by the author, but that the indecencies were omitted, and the void spaces filled up with graver sentences. They have been very often printed both with and without Latin versions, and are to be found in all the collections of the Greek minor poets. One of the best editions, but a rare book, is that by Ant. Blackwell, Lond. 1706, 12mo. ¹