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Biographies of the Epigrammatists

From J. W. Mackail

1 of 6

Greek Literature From the Period of the Ascendancy of Athens

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 | Biographies of the Epigrammatists - Greek Literature From the Period of the Alexandrian Monarchs

II. Period of the ascendancy of Athens, and of the great dramatists and historians; from the repulse of the Persian invasion to the extinction of Greek freedom at the battle of Chaeronea, B.C. 480- 338.

In this period the epigram almost disappears, overwhelmed apparently by the greater forms of poetry which were then in their perfection. Between Simonides and Plato there is not a single name on our list; and it is not till the period of the transition, the first half of the fourth century B.C., that the epigram begins to reappear.

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