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Callimachus (c. 305 BC|305 - c. 240 BC) was a
Greece|Greek poet and grammarian, a native of
Cyrene, Libya|Cyrene and a descendant of the
illustrious house of the Battiadae, whence he was
sometimes called Battiades (e.g., in Catullus's
65th poem).

He opened a school in the suburbs of Alexandria,
and some of the most distinguished grammarians and
poets were his pupils, among them Apollonius of
Rhodes He was subsequently appointed by Ptolemy
Philadelphus chief librarian of the Library of
Alexandria|Alexandrian library, which office he
held till his death (about 240). His Pinakes
(tablets), in 120 books, a critical and
chronologically arranged catalogue of the library,
laid the foundation of a history of Greek
literature.

According to the Suda, he wrote about 800 works,
in verse and prose; of these only six hymns,
sixty-four epigrams and some fragments are extant;
a considerable fragment of the Hecale, an idyllic
epic, has also been discovered in the
papyrology|Rainer papyri.

His Coma Berenices is only known from the
celebrated imitation of Catullus (the latter's
66th poem). His Aitia (causes) was a collection of
elegiac poems in four books, dealing with the
foundation of cities, religious ceremonies and
other customs. According to Quintilian
(Inst it. x. 1. 58) he was the chief of
the elegiac poets; his elegies were highly
esteemed by the Romans (see neoterics), and
imitated by Ovid, Catullus and especially
Propertius. The extant hymns are extremely
learned, and written in a laboured and artificial
style. The epigrams, some of the best specimens of
their kind, have been incorporated in the Greek
Anthology.

Art and learning are his chief characteristics,
unrelieved by any real poetic genius; in the words
of Ovid (Amores, i. 15)--"Quamvis ingenio non
valet, arte valet.", epigrams and fragments (the
last collected, by Richard Bentley|Bentley) by
Johann August Ernesti|JA Ernesti (1761), and O
Schneider (1870--1873) (with elaborate indices and
excursuses); hymns and epigrams, by Augustus
Meineke|A Meineke (1861), and Ulrich von
Wilamowitz-Moellendorff (1897).

Another Callimachus (polemarch)|Callimachus was
the Polemarch at the Battle of Marathon, and a
third Callimachus (sculptor)|Callimachus was a
sculptor.

1911