Agathias
![A game of τάβλη (tabula) played by Zeno in 480 and recorded by Agathias in circa 530 because of a very unlucky dice result for Zeno. The game is nearly identical to backgammon; Zeno (red) threw 2, 5 and 6 and was forced to leave eight pieces alone and thus exposed to capture. See](/Images/godic/202412/20/Tabula_-_boardgame_-_Zeno_game.svg5640.png")
Agathias or Agathias Scholasticus (Greek: Ἀγαθίας σχολαστικός; c. AD 530 – 582/594), of Myrina (Mysia), an Aeolian city in western Asia Minor (now in Turkey), was a Greek poet and the principal historian of part of the reign of the Roman emperor Justinian I between 552 and 558.