Epigrams, Greek; Greek poetry -- Translations into English
GAETULICUS, the author of eight epigrams in the Palatine Anthology
(vi. 154 and vii. 245 are wrongly ascribed to him), is usually
identified with Gn. Lentulus Gaetulicus, legate of Upper Germany,
executed on suspicion of conspiracy by Caligula, A.D. 39, and
mentioned as a writer of amatory poetry by Martial and Pliny. But the
identification is very doubtful, and perhaps he rather belongs to the
second century A.D. No precise date is indicated in any of the
epigrams.
POMPEIUS, author of two or three epigrams in the Palatine Anthology,
also called Pompeius the Younger, is generally identified with M.
Pompeius Theophanes, son of Theophanes of Mitylene, the friend of
Pompey the Great, and himself a friend of Tiberius, according to
Strabo.
To the same period probably belong QUINTUS MAECIUS or MACCIUS, author
of twelve epigrams in the Anthology, and MARCUS ARGENTARIUS, perhaps
the same with a rhetorician Argentarius mentioned by the elder Seneca,
author of thirty-seven epigrams, chiefly amatory and convivial, some
of which have much grace and fancy. Others place him in the age of
Hadrian.
(2) PHILIPPUS of Thessalonica was the compiler of an Anthology of
epigrammatists subsequent to Meleager and is himself the author of
seventy-four extant epigrams in the Anthology besides six more
dubiously ascribed to him. He wrote epigrams of all sorts, mainly
imitated from older writers and showing but little original power or
imagination. The latest certain historical allusion in his own work is
one to Agrippa's mole at Puteoli, but Antiphilus, who was included in
his collection, certainly wrote in the reign of Nero, and probably
Philippus was of about the same date. Most of his epigrams being
merely rhetorical exercises on stock themes give no clue to his
precise period.
ANTIPHILUS of Byzantium, whose date is fixed by his epigram on the
restoration of liberty to Rhodes by the emperor Nero, A.D. 53 (Tac.
/Ann./ xii. 58), is the author of forty-nine epigrams in the
Anthology, besides three doubtful. Among them are some graceful
dedications, pastoral epigrams, and sea-pieces. The pretty epitaph on
Agricola (/Anth. Pal./ ix. 549) gives no clue to his date, as it
certainly is not on the father-in-law of Tacitus, and no other person
of the name appears to be mentioned in history.
JULIUS POLYAENUS is the author of a group of three epigrams (/Anth.
Pal./ ix. 7-9), which have a high seriousness rare in the work of this
period. He has been probably identified with a C. Julius Polyaenus who
is known from coins to have been a duumvir of Corinth (Colonia Julia)
under Nero. He was a native of Corcyra, to which he retired after a
life of much toil and travel, apparently as a merchant. The epigram by
Polyaenus of Sardis (/Anth. Pal./ ix. 1), usually referred to the same
author, is in a completely different manner.
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