Callimachus
Callimachus,of Cyrene, Greek poet and scholar, ‘Battiades’ (Epigrammata 35), i.e. son (or descendant?) of Battus; his grandfather was a general (Epigrammata 21). He flourished under Ptolemy II (285–246 BC and continued into the reign of Ptolemy III (246–221 BC: Suidas); he mentions the Celtic invasion of 279 (Hymn to Delos 4. 171 ff.; fr. 379); the marriage (c.275) and apotheosis (270? 268?) of Arsinoë II Philadelphus, sister-wife of Ptolemy II (frs. 392, 228); and the Laodicean War of 246/5 (fr. 110). Other work for Berenice II, wife of Ptolemy III (Epigrammata 51?, frs. 387–8, Supplementum Hellenisticum 254 ff.), and perhaps the Victory of Sosibius (fr. 384), belong to the same late period. Callimachus stood close to the Alexandrian court; it may be accident that we have no works datable between Arsinoë's death and the...
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