THEOGNIS, Greek poet, born (d: ?); This elegiac poet was an aristocrat who apparently lost his wealth and property during one of the many conflicts between the aristocracy and the lower classes that are characteristic of this period in the Greek states. Embittered by these losses and convinced that all virtue resides in aristocracy, Theognis expressed in a number of poems his hatred for plebeians and his nostalgia for the past when the power of aristocracy was unquestioned. The poems are really moral precepts addressed to his young boyfriend, Cyrnus. Given his reactionary daydreams, if Theognis were reincarnated today, he’d probably be one of those highly moral Republicans who are arrested in Washington (or Minneapolis) restrooms every now and then.