HEGESIAS OF MAGNESIA (in Lydia), Greek rhetori cian and historian, flourished about 30o B.C. Strabo (xiv. 648) speaks of him as the founder of the florid "Asiatic" style (see TIMAEUS). Agatharchides, Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Cicero all speak of him in disparaging terms, although Varro seems to have approved of his work. He professed to imitate the simple style of Lysias, avoiding long periods and expressing himself in short, jerky sentences, but his vulgar affectation and bombast made his writings a mere caricature of the old Attic.
See C. W. Muller, Scriptores rerum Alexandri Magni, p. 138 (appendix to Didot ed. of Arrian, 1846) ; Norden, Die antike Kunst prosy (1898) ; J. B. Bury, Ancient Greek Historians (19o9), pp. 169-172, on origin and development of "Asiatic" style, with example from Hegesias. Fragments and references in ancient authorities in F. Jacoby, Fragmente der griechischen Historiker (1927), vol. ii.