Hegesias of Magnesia ( grc-gre, Ἡγησίας ὁ Μάγνης, ''Hēgēsias ho Magnēs''),

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

rhetorician, and historian, flourished about 300 BC. Strabo (xiv. 648), speaks of him as the founder of the florid

Asiatic style The Asiatic style or Asianism ( la, genus orationis Asiaticum, Cicero, '' Brutus'' 325) refers to an Ancient Greek rhetorical tendency (though not an organized school) that arose in the third century BC, which, although of minimal relevance at the ...

of composition.

Agatharchides Agatharchides or Agatharchus ( grc-gre, Ἀγαθαρχίδης or , ''Agatharchos'') of Cnidus was a Greek historian and geographer (flourished 2nd century BC). Life Agatharchides is believed to have been born at Cnidus, hence his appellation. A ...

, Dionysius of Halicarnassus (''De compositione verborum'
18
and

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...

all speak of him in disparaging terms, although

Varro Marcus Terentius Varro (; 116–27 BC) was a Roman polymath and a prolific author. He is regarded as ancient Rome's greatest scholar, and was described by Petrarch as "the third great light of Rome" (after Vergil and Cicero). He is sometimes calle ...

seems to have approved of his work. He professed to imitate the simplest style of

Lysias Lysias (; el, Λυσίας; c. 445 – c. 380 BC) was a logographer (speech writer) in Ancient Greece. He was one of the ten Attic orators included in the "Alexandrian Canon" compiled by Aristophanes of Byzantium and Aristarchus of Samothrace i ...

, avoiding long periods, and expressing himself in short, jerky sentences, without modulation or finish. His vulgar affectation and bombast made his writings a mere caricature of the old Attic. Dionysius describes his composition as tinselled, ignoble and effeminate. According to Gualtiero Calboli, Hegesias and his fellow Asiatics rejected Attic examples (and in particular the example of

Thucydides Thucydides (; grc, , }; BC) was an Athenian historian and general. His '' History of the Peloponnesian War'' recounts the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of " scienti ...

) in favor of a return to "the models of Ionic and

sophist A sophist ( el, σοφιστής, sophistes) was a teacher in ancient Greece in the fifth and fourth centuries BC. Sophists specialized in one or more subject areas, such as philosophy, rhetoric, music, athletics, and mathematics. They taught ' ...

ic prose."Roberto Nicolai, "''Ktêma es aei'': Aspects of the Reception of Thucydides in the Ancient World," in Jeffrey Rusten (ed.) ''Thucydides: Oxford Readings in Classical Studies''
p. 386
/ref> It is generally supposed, from the fragment quoted as a specimen by Dionysius (and cf.

Plutarch Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for hi ...

, ''Life of Alexander'
3
, that Hegesias is to be classed among the writers of lives of

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...

. This fragment describes the treatment of Gaza and its inhabitants by Alexander after its conquest, but it is possible that it is only part of an epideictic or show speech, not of an historical work. This view is supported by a remark of Agatharchides in Photius (cod. 250) that the only aim of Hegesias was to exhibit his skill in describing sensational events.

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Fragments: Greek text and Latin translation
ed. Karl Wilhelm Ludwig Müller {{DEFAULTSORT:Hegesias Of Magnesia Hellenistic-era historians 4th-century BC historians Ancient Greek rhetoricians Ancient Anatolian Greeks Historiography of Alexander the Great Historians from Hellenistic Anatolia Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown