Meleager of Gadara was a poet and collector of epigrams. He wrote some satirical prose, now lost, and he wrote some sensual poetry, of which 134 epigrams survive. He also compiled numerous epigrams from diverse poets in an anthology known as the Garland, and although this does not survive, it is the original basis for the Greek Anthology.
The Palatine Anthology, sometimes abbreviated AP, is the collection of Greek poems and epigrams discovered in 1606 in the Palatine Library in Heidelberg. It is based on the lost collection of Constantine Cephalas of the 10th century, which in turn is based on older anthologies. It contains material from the 7th century BC until 600 AD and later on was the main part of the Greek Anthology which also included the Anthology of Planudes and more material.
Philippus of Thessalonica or Philippus Epigrammaticus was the compiler of an Anthology of Epigrammatists subsequent to Meleager of Gadara and is himself the author of 72 epigrams in the Greek Anthology. Philippus has one word which describes the epigram by a single quality; he calls his work an oligostikhia or collection of poems not exceeding a few lines in length. Philippus' own epigrams, of which over seventy are extant, are generally rather dull, chiefly school exercises, and, in the phrase of Jacobs, imitatione magis quam inventione conspicua. But we owe to him the preservation of a large mass of work belonging to the Roman period.
Parmenion was a Macedonian epigrammatic poet, whose verses were included in the collection of Philip of Thessalonica in Greek Anthology ; whence it is probable that he flourished in, or shortly before, the time of Augustus. Brunck gives fourteen of his epigrams in the Analecta, and one more in the Lectiones. Reiske refers to him one of the anonymous epigrams, on the ground of the superscription Parmenontos in the Vatican MS, but that is the name, not of the author of the epigram, but of the victor who dedicated the statue to which it forms the inscription, as is clear from the epigram itself. The epigrams of Parmenion are characterized by brevity, which he himself declares that he aimed at; unfortunately, they want the body, of which brevity is said to be the soul,—wit.
Samus or Samius or Simmias, son of Chrysogonus was a Macedonian lyric and epigrammatic poet. He was brought up with Philip V, the son of Demetrius, by whom also he was put to death, but for what reason we are not informed. He therefore flourished at the end of the 3rd century BC. Polybius has preserved one of his iambic lines ; and two epigrams by him are contained in the Greek Anthology, both on the subject of Philip's exploit in killing the wild bull on Mount Orbelos, on which we have also an epigram by Antipater of Sidon. The name is written in both the above ways, and in the Planudean Anthology both epigrams are ascribed to Simmias doubtless by the common error of substituting a well-known name for one less known.
Theodoridas of Syracuse was a lyric and epigrammatic poet from Syracuse, who is supposed to have lived at the same time as Euphorion, that is, about 235 BC; for, on the one hand, Euphorion is mentioned in one of the epigrams of Theodoridas, and, on the other hand, Clement of Alexandria quotes a verse of Euphorion ἐν ταῖς πρὸς Θεωρίδαν ἀντιγραφαῖς, where Schneider suggests the emendation Θεοδωρίδαν.
Agis was an Ancient Greek poet from Argos, and a contemporary of Alexander the Great, whom he accompanied on his Asiatic expedition. Curtius as well as Arrian and Plutarch describe him as a sycophant, one of the basest flatterers of the king. Curtius calls him "the composer of the worst poems after Choerilus", which probably refers rather to their obsequious, flattering character than to their worth as poetry. The Greek Anthology contains an epigram which is probably the work of this flatterer.
Alcaeus of Messene was an ancient Greek poet, who flourished between 219 and 196 BC. Twenty-two of his short poems or epigrams 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.
Alpheus Mytilenaeus was the author of about twelve epigrams 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, as embracing almost all the known world; in the ninth he speaks of the restored and flourishing city of Troy; and in the tenth he alludes to an epigram by Antipater of Sidon. Antipater lived under Augustus, in the second half of the 1st century BC, and Troy had received great favors from Julius Caesar and Augustus. 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.
Rufinus is the author of approximately thirty-eight epigrams, found in the fifth book of the Greek Anthology. When he was active is unknown, though we know that his poems existed by the 390s AD, and he probably postdated the Garland of Philip of Thessalonica, published under Nero. Alan Cameron dates Rufinus to before Strato, which would imply that he was active before 250 AD. Rufinus possibly lived near Ephesus, where one of his poems is set.
His verses are of the same light amatory character as those of Agathias, Paulus Silentiarius, Macedonius, and others; but beyond this there is no other indication of his period.
Cleon was an Ancient Greek sculptor of Sicyon. He was a pupil of Antiphanes, who had been taught by Periclytus, a follower of the great Polykleitos of Argos.
Andronicus was a poet of ancient Greece.
Antiphilus of Byzantium was a writer of epigrams who lived about the time of the Roman emperor Nero, as appears from one of his epigrams in which he mentions the favor conferred by that emperor upon the island of Rhodes.
Heracleides of Sinope was a writer of ancient Greece. Under this name we possess a Greek epigram in the Greek Anthology. It is not improbable that two other epigrams are likewise his productions, though his native place is not mentioned there. He seems to have been a poet of some celebrity, as Diogenes Laërtius mentions him as ἐπιγραμμάτων ποιητὴς λιγυρός. Diogenes Laërtius mentions fourteen persons of this name.
Arabius Scholasticus was a writer of classical antiquity who was the author of seven epigrams in the Greek Anthology, most of which are upon works of art. He lived probably in the reign of Justinian.
Archelaus, a poet of ancient Greece, is called in ancient sources an Egyptian, and is believed to have been a native of a town in Egypt called Chersonesus, as he is also called "Chersonesita". He wrote epigrams, some of which are still extant in the Greek Anthology.
Archimelus was a writer of ancient Greece who was the author of an epigram on the great ship of Hiero II of Syracuse, which appears to have been built about 220 BCE. The writer Athenaeus recounts a story wherein Hiero supplied Archimelus with 1000 medimnoi of wheat as payment for this epigram.
