Alpheus Mytilenaeus ( Gr. ) was the author of about twelve

epigram An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, and sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word is derived from the Greek "inscription" from "to write on, to inscribe", and the literary device has been employed for over two mille ...

s in the '' Greek Anthology'', some of which seem to point out the time when he wrote. In the seventh epigram he refers to the state of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Medite ...

, as embracing almost all the known world; in the ninth he speaks of the restored and flourishing city of

Troy Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in present-day Turkey, south-west of Çan ...

; and in the tenth he alludes to an epigram by

Antipater of Sidon Antipater of Sidon (Greek: Ἀντίπατρος ὁ Σιδώνιος, ''Antipatros ho Sidonios'') was an ancient Greek poet of the second half of the 2nd century BC. Cicero mentions him living at Rome in the time of Crassus and Quintus Lutatiu ...

. Antipater lived under

Augustus Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pr ...

, in the second half of the 1st century BC, and Troy had received great favors from Julius Caesar and Augustus. Strabo, ''

Geographica The ''Geographica'' (Ancient Greek: Γεωγραφικά ''Geōgraphiká''), or ''Geography'', is an encyclopedia of geographical knowledge, consisting of 17 'books', written in Greek and attributed to Strabo, an educated citizen of the Roman ...

'' xiii. p. 889 Therefore, it is not improbable that Alpheus also wrote under Augustus. It is true that in the fourth epigram he addresses a certain Macrinus, but there is no reason to suppose that this was the emperor

Macrinus Marcus Opellius Macrinus (; – June 218) was Roman emperor from April 217 to June 218, reigning jointly with his young son Diadumenianus. As a member of the equestrian class, he became the first emperor who did not hail from the senator ...

References

Epigrammatists of the Greek Anthology Ancient Mytileneans Roman-era Greeks 1st-century BC poets {{AncientGreece-writer-stub