Theagenes (patrician)

Theagenes (Greek: Θεαγένης, floruit 470s–480s) was an Athenian politician.

Biography

A native of Athens, Theagenes belonged to a wealthy and aristocratic family that claimed descent from Miltiades and Plato. He had a wife, Asclepideneia, who was the great-granddaughter of the Neoplatonic philosopher Plutarch of Athens.^[1] He also had a son called Hegias.^[2]

He was a Roman senator, a patricius and an archon.^[3] He was a supporter of the Neoplatonic school of Proclus.^[4] After Proclus' death however, Theagenes came into conflict with the school's headmasters, as he used its patronage to increase his own prestige. He was a supporter of Pamprepius when the poet went to Athens, but later they fell out (Theagenes styled himself a philosopher, while Pamprepius' ambition was to become the best philosopher) and Pamprepius was forced to leave the city.^[5]

A panegyric dedicated to Theagenes, probably written by Pamprepius, exists.^[6]