Greek Anthology From the Roman Period

Source: Select Epigrams from

The Greek Anthology

Edited with a Revised Text, Translation, and Notes, by J. W. Mackail

London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1890

Biographies of the Epigrammatists - Greek Literature From the Earliest Period to the Persian Wars

IV. Roman period; from the establishment of the Empire to the decay of art and letters after the death of Marcus Aurelius, B.C. 30-A.D. 180.

This period falls into three subdivisions; (1) poets of the Augustan age; (2) those of what may roughly be called the Neronian age, about the middle of the first century; and (3) those of the brief and partial renascence of art and letters under Hadrian, which, before the accession of Commodus, had again sunk away, leaving a period of some centuries almost wholly without either, but for the beginnings of Christian art and the writings of the earlier Fathers of the Church.

Even from the outset of this period the epigram begins to fall off. There is a tendency to choose trifling subjects, and treat them either sentimentally or cynically. The heaviness of Roman workmanship affects all but a few of the best epigrams, and there is a loss of simplicity and clearness of outline. Many of the poets of this period, if not most, lived as dependants in wealthy Roman families and wrote to order: and we see in their work the bad results of an excessive taste for rhetoric and the practice of fluent but empty improvisation.

_{Poets of the Roman Period
Antipater of Thessalonica
Antiphanes the Macedonian
Bianor of Bithynia
Crinagoras of Mitylene
Diodorus the Younger
Evenus of Ascalon
Parmenio the Macedonian}

Poets of the Roman Period

• ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA
  
• ANTIPHANES
  
• BIANOR
  
• CRINAGORAS
  
• DIODORUS
  
• EVENUS
  
• PARMENIO
  
• APOLLONIDES
  
• GAETULICUS
  
• POMPEIUS
  
• QUINTUS MAECIUS
  
• PHILIPPUS
  
• ANTIPHILUS
  
• JULIUS POLYAENUS
  
• LUCILIUS
  
• NICARCHUS
  
• STRATO
  
• AMMIANUS
  
• THYMOCLES
  
• CLAUDIUS PTOLEMAEUS
  
• LUCIAN
  

Roman Period | Augustan Age of the Roman Period | Section on the Neronian era of the Roman Period of The Greek Anthology | Hadrian to the Accession of Commodus

_{Poets of the Roman Period
Antipater of Thessalonica
Antiphanes the Macedonian
Bianor of Bithynia
Crinagoras of Mitylene
Diodorus the Younger
Evenus of Ascalon
Parmenio the Macedonian}

Antipater of Thessalonica

(1) ANTIPATER OF THESSALONICA, the author of upwards of a hundred epigrams in the Anthology, is the most copious and perhaps the most interesting of the Augustan epigrammatists. There are many allusions in his work to contemporary history. He lived under the patronage of L. Calpurnius Piso, consul in B.C. 15, and afterwards proconsul of Macedonia for several years, and was appointed by him governor of Thessalonica.

One of his epigrams celebrates the foundation of Nicopolis by Octavianus, after the battle of Actium; another anticipates his victory over the Parthians in the expedition of B.C. 20; another is addressed to Caius Caesar, who died in A.D. 4. None can be ascribed certainly to a later date than this.

Roman Period | Augustan Age of the Roman Period | Section on the Neronian era of the Roman Period of The Greek Anthology | Hadrian to the Accession of Commodus

_{Poets of the Roman Period
Antipater of Thessalonica
Antiphanes the Macedonian
Bianor of Bithynia
Crinagoras of Mitylene
Diodorus the Younger
Evenus of Ascalon
Parmenio the Macedonian}

Antiphanes the Macedonian

ANTIPHANES the Macedonian is the author of ten epigrams in the Palatine Anthology; one of these, however, is headed "Antiphanes of Megalopolis" and may be by a different author. There is no precise indication of time in his poems.

Roman Period | Augustan Age of the Roman Period | Section on the Neronian era of the Roman Period of The Greek Anthology | Hadrian to the Accession of Commodus

_{Poets of the Roman Period
Antipater of Thessalonica
Antiphanes the Macedonian
Bianor of Bithynia
Crinagoras of Mitylene
Diodorus the Younger
Evenus of Ascalon
Parmenio the Macedonian}

Bianor of Bithynia

BIANOR of Bithynia is the author of twenty-two epigrams in the Anthology. One of them is on the destruction of Sardis by an earthquake in A.D. 17. He is fond of sentimental treatment, which sometimes touches pathos but often becomes trifling.

Roman Period | Augustan Age of the Roman Period | Section on the Neronian era of the Roman Period of The Greek Anthology | Hadrian to the Accession of Commodus

_{Poets of the Roman Period
Antipater of Thessalonica
Antiphanes the Macedonian
Bianor of Bithynia
Crinagoras of Mitylene
Diodorus the Younger
Evenus of Ascalon
Parmenio the Macedonian}

Crinagoras of Mitylene

CRINAGORAS of Mitylene lived at Rome as a sort of court poet during the latter part of the reign of Augustus. He is mentioned by Strabo as a contemporary of some distinction. In one of his epigrams he blames himself for hanging on to wealthy patrons; several others are complimentary verses sent with small presents to the children of his aristocratic friends: one is addressed to young Marcellus with a copy of the poems of Callimachus.

Others are on the return of Marcellus from the Cantabrian war, B.C. 25; on the victories of Tiberius in Armenia and Germany; and on Antonia, daughter of the triumvir and wife of Drusus. Another, written in the spirit of that age of tourists, speaks of undertaking a voyage from Asia to Italy, visiting the Cyclades and Corcyra on the way. Fifty-one epigrams are attributed to him in the Anthology; one of these, however ("Anth. Pal." ix. 235), is on the marriage of Berenice of Cyrene to Ptolemy III. Euergetes, and must be referred to Callimachus or one of his contemporaries.

Roman Period | Augustan Age of the Roman Period | Section on the Neronian era of the Roman Period of The Greek Anthology | Hadrian to the Accession of Commodus

_{Poets of the Roman Period
Antipater of Thessalonica
Antiphanes the Macedonian
Bianor of Bithynia
Crinagoras of Mitylene
Diodorus the Younger
Evenus of Ascalon
Parmenio the Macedonian}

Diodorus the Younger

DIODORUS, son of Diopeithes of Sardis, also called Diodorus the Younger, in distinction to Diodorus Zonas, is mentioned as a friend of his own by Strabo, and was a historian and melic poet besides being an epigrammatist. Seventeen of the epigrams in the Anthology under the name of Diodorus are usually ascribed to him, and include a few fine epitaphs.

Roman Period | Augustan Age of the Roman Period | Section on the Neronian era of the Roman Period of The Greek Anthology | Hadrian to the Accession of Commodus

_{Poets of the Roman Period
Antipater of Thessalonica
Antiphanes the Macedonian
Bianor of Bithynia
Crinagoras of Mitylene
Diodorus the Younger
Evenus of Ascalon
Parmenio the Macedonian}

EVENUS of Ascalon is probably the author of eight epigrams in the Anthology; but some of these may belong to other epigrammatists of the same name, Evenus of Athens, Evenus of Sicily, and Evenus Grammaticus, unless the last two of these are the same person. Evenus of Athens has been doubtfully identified with Evenus of Paros, and elegiac poet of some note contemporary with Socrates, mentioned in the "Phaedo" and quoted by Aristotle: and it is just possible that some of the best of the epigrams, most of which are on works of art, may be his.

Roman Period | Augustan Age of the Roman Period | Section on the Neronian era of the Roman Period of The Greek Anthology | Hadrian to the Accession of Commodus

_{Poets of the Roman Period
Antipater of Thessalonica
Antiphanes the Macedonian
Bianor of Bithynia
Crinagoras of Mitylene
Diodorus the Younger
Evenus of Ascalon
Parmenio the Macedonian}

PARMENIO the Macedonian is the author of sixteen epigrams in the Anthology, most of which have little quality beyond commonplace rhetoric.

More Augustan Age Poets

Roman Period | Augustan Age of the Roman Period | Section on the Neronian era of the Roman Period of The Greek Anthology | Hadrian to the Accession of Commodus

_{Poets of the Roman Period
Antipater of Thessalonica
Antiphanes the Macedonian
Bianor of Bithynia
Crinagoras of Mitylene
Diodorus the Younger
Evenus of Ascalon
Parmenio the Macedonian}