Alexander (
Gr. ) surnamed Lychnus (), was an ancient Greek rhetorician and poet.
He was a native of
Ephesus
Ephesus (; grc-gre, Ἔφεσος, Éphesos; tr, Efes; may ultimately derive from hit, 𒀀𒉺𒊭, Apaša) was a city in ancient Greece on the coast of Ionia, southwest of present-day Selçuk in İzmir Province, Turkey. It was built in t ...
, from which he is sometimes called Alexander Ephesius, and must have lived shortly before the time of
Strabo
Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-sighted that he could see ...
(i.e., the 1st century BC), who mentions him among the more recent Ephesian authors, and also states that he took a part in the political affairs of his native city. Strabo ascribes to him a history, and poems of a didactic kind, viz. one on astronomy and another on geography, in which he describes the great continents of the world, treating of each in a separate work or book, which, as we learn from other sources, bore the name of the continent of which it contained an account. What kind of history it was that Strabo alludes to, is uncertain. The so-called
Aurelius Victor
Sextus Aurelius Victor (c. 320 – c. 390) was a historian and politician of the Roman Empire. Victor was the author of a short history of imperial Rome, entitled ''De Caesaribus'' and covering the period from Augustus to Constantius II. The work w ...
quotes the first book of a history of the
Marsic War
Kappa Herculis (κ Herculis, abbreviated Kappa Her, κ Her) is an optical double star in the constellation of Hercules. The two components, Kappa Herculis A (Marsic , the traditional name of the system) and B, were 27.3 arc seconds apa ...
by Alexander the Ephesian; but this authority is considered doubtful.
Some writers have supposed that this Alexander is the author of the history of the succession of Greek philosophers (), which is often referred to by
Diogenes Laërtius
Diogenes Laërtius ( ; grc-gre, Διογένης Λαέρτιος, ; ) was a biographer of the Ancient Greece, Greek philosophers. Nothing is definitively known about his life, but his surviving ''Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers'' is a ...
; but this work belonged probably to
Alexander Polyhistor
Lucius Cornelius Alexander Polyhistor ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ Πολυΐστωρ; flourished in the first half of the 1st century BC; also called Alexander of Miletus) was a Greek scholar who was enslaved by the Romans during the Mithrida ...
. His geographical poem, of which several fragments are still extant, is frequently referred to by
Stephanus of Byzantium
Stephanus or Stephan of Byzantium ( la, Stephanus Byzantinus; grc-gre, Στέφανος Βυζάντιος, ''Stéphanos Byzántios''; centuryAD), was a Byzantine grammarian and the author of an important geographical dictionary entitled ''Ethni ...
and others. Of his astronomical poem a fragment is still extant, which however has also been attributed to
Alexander Aetolus
Alexander Aetolus ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ Αἰτωλός, ''Ἀléxandros ὁ Aἰtōlós'') was a Greek poet and grammarian, the only known representative of Aetolian poetry.
Life
Alexander was the son of Satyrus (Σάτυρος) and ...
, particularly by the scholars
Thomas Gale
Thomas Gale (1635/1636?7 or 8 April 1702) was an English classical scholar, antiquarian and cleric.
Life
Gale was born at Scruton, Yorkshire. He was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, of which he became a fellow. ...
and
Johann Gottlob Schneider
Johann Gottlob Theaenus Schneider (18 January 1750 – 12 January 1822) was a German Empire, German classicist and natural history, naturalist.
Biography
Schneider was born at Collm in Saxony. In 1774, on the recommendation of Christian Gottlob ...
. It is highly probable that
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the estab ...
is speaking of Alexander Lychnus when he mentions an Alexander whom he says is a bad poet, and a careless writer, but whose poems yet possess some factual information. The Greek text of his poem has been edited with a commentary by Christophe Cusset.
[ In David Sider (ed.), ''Hellenistic Poetry: A Selection'' (Ann Arbor 2017) 56-64.]
References
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Ancient Greek poets
1st-century BC Greek people
1st-century BC poets
1st-century BC historians
Roman-era Greek historians
Ancient Ephesians
Ancient Greek rhetoricians
Historians from Roman Anatolia