Theagenes was an Athenian

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

 politician.

Biography

A native of Athens

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

, Theagenes belonged to a wealthy and aristocratic family that claimed descent from Miltiades

Miltiades

Miltiades or Miltiadis is a Greek name. Several historic persons have been called Miltiades .* Miltiades the Elder wealthy Athenian, and step-uncle of Miltiades the Younger...

 and Plato

Plato

Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...

. He had a wife, Asclepideneia, who was the great-granddaughter of the Neoplatonic

Neoplatonism

Neoplatonism , is the modern term for a school of religious and mystical philosophy that took shape in the 3rd century AD, based on the teachings of Plato and earlier Platonists, with its earliest contributor believed to be Plotinus, and his teacher Ammonius Saccas...

 philosopher Plutarch of Athens

Plutarch of Athens

Plutarch of Athens was a Greek philosopher and Neoplatonist who taught at Athens at the beginning of the 5th century. He reestablished the Platonic Academy there and became its leader...

. He also had a son called Hegias.

He was a Roman senator, a patricius and an archon

Archon

Archon is a Greek word that means "ruler" or "lord", frequently used as the title of a specific public office. It is the masculine present participle of the verb stem ἀρχ-, meaning "to rule", derived from the same root as monarch, hierarchy, and anarchy.- Ancient Greece :In ancient Greece the...

. He was a supporter of the Neoplatonic school of Proclus

Proclus

Proclus Lycaeus , called "The Successor" or "Diadochos" , was a Greek Neoplatonist philosopher, one of the last major Classical philosophers . He set forth one of the most elaborate and fully developed systems of Neoplatonism...

. 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

Pamprepius

Pamprepius was a philosopher and a Pagan poet who rebelled against the Eastern Roman Emperor Zeno....

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.

A panegyric dedicated to Theagenes, probably written by Pamprepius, exists.