Theognis

Theognis (570?-485 B.C.), Greek elegiac poet, was born at Megara, and belonged to a family which was the ruling party in his native place. Hence the gaiety of his earlier pieces; but, after the triumph of the democratic party and the confiscation of the property of the aristocrats, his poetry became more mournful in character and took an elegiac turn. He is considered the most remarkable of the Gnomic poets, and was ranked high as a moralist among the ancient Greeks. Only a few fragments of his poems remain. They were first published under the name of Sentences by Aldus in Venice in 1495.