Alcaeus of Messene (;

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

: ) was an ancient

poet, who flourished between 219 and 196 BC. Twenty-two of his short poems or

epigram An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word derives from the Greek (, "inscription", from [], "to write on, to inscribe"). This literary device has been practiced for over two millennia ...

s survive in the Greek Anthology, from some of which his date may be fixed at around the late 3rd/early 2nd century BC. Some of his poems are on literary themes, but most are political. Alcaeus was contemporary with Philip V, king of

Macedon Macedonia ( ; , ), also called Macedon ( ), was an ancient kingdom on the periphery of Archaic and Classical Greece, which later became the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. The kingdom was founded and initially ruled by the royal ...

and son of

Demetrius II of Macedon Demetrius II (Greek: Δημήτριος, romanized: ''Demetrios;'' 275 - 229 BC), also known as Demetrius Aetolicus, was king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia from 239 until his death in 229 BC. Biography Demetrius was born in either 27 ...

, against whom several of his poems are pointed, apparently from patriotic feelings. One of these, however, gave more offense to the Roman general Flamininus than to Philip, as Alcaeus ascribed the victory of the

battle of Cynoscephalae The Battle of Cynoscephalae () was an encounter battle fought in Thessaly in 197 BC between the Roman army, led by Titus Quinctius Flamininus, and the Antigonid dynasty of Macedon, led by Philip V, during the Second Macedonian War. It was ...

to the

Aetolia Aetolia () is a mountainous region of Greece on the north coast of the Gulf of Corinth, forming the eastern part of the modern regional unit of Aetolia-Acarnania. Geography The Achelous River separates Aetolia from Acarnania to the west; on ...

ns as much as to the Romans. Philip contented himself with writing an epigram in reply to that of Alcaeus, in which he gave the Messenian a very broad hint of the fate he might expect if he fell into his hands. This reply was enough to lead French classical scholar

Claudius Salmasius Claude Saumaise (15 April 1588 – 3 September 1653), also known by the Latin name Claudius Salmasius, was a French classical scholar. Life Salmasius was born at Semur-en-Auxois in Burgundy (region), Burgundy. When Salmasius was sixteen, his fath ...

to suppose that Alcaeus was actually crucified by Philip. In another epigram, in praise of Flamininus, the mention of the Roman general's name, Titus, led

John Tzetzes John Tzetzes (; , Constantinople – 1180, Constantinople) was a Byzantine poet and grammarian who lived at Constantinople in the 12th century. He is known for making significant contributions in preserving much valuable information from ancien ...

into the error of imagining the existence of an epigrammatist named Alcaeus under the emperor Titus.

, ''Proleg. in Lycophron'' Those epigrams of Alcaeus which bear internal evidence of their date were written between the years 219 and 196. Of the 22 epigrams in the Greek Anthology which bear the name of Alcaeus, two are written "

Alcaeus of Mytilene Alcaeus of Mytilene (; , ''Alkaios ho Mutilēnaios''; – BC) was a lyric poet from the Greek island of Lesbos who is credited with inventing the Alcaic stanza. He was included in the canonical list of nine lyric poets by the scholars of H ...

"; but most scholars take this to be the addition of some ignorant

copyist A copyist is a person who makes duplications of the same thing. The modern use of the term is mainly confined to music copyists, who are employed by the music industry to produce neat copies from a composer or arranger's manuscript. However, the ...

. Others bear the name of "Alcaeus of Messene," and some of Alcaeus alone. But in the last class there are several which must, from internal evidence, have been written by Alcaeus of Messene, and there seems no reason to doubt his being the author of all twenty-two.

Notes

References

External links

Alcaeus of Messene: translation of all surviving epigrams
at ''attalus.org''; adapted from W.R.Paton (1916-18) {{DEFAULTSORT:Alcaeus Of Messene Epigrammatists of the Greek Anthology 3rd-century BC Greek poets Ancient Messenians 2nd-century BC Greek poets