2. An epigrammatic poet, who was probably a different person from the comic poet, since he is mentioned with the appellation ὁ ἐπιγραμματογράφος (Schol. in Apoll. Rhod. 1.1289). He seems, however, to have lived about the same time as the comic poet, since Zeno and Cleanthes, who were contemporary with the latter, are mentioned in one of his epigrams (No. 11), and another epigram (No. 21) is upon the temple which Ptolemy Philadelphus erected in honour of his sister and wife Arsinoe [ARSINOE]. He is several times referred to by Athenaeus, Stephanus Byzantinus, and the grammarians. His epigrams formed a part of the Garland of Meleager, who appears to mention him as a Sicilian (Prooem. 45, 46); and twenty-two of them are preserved in the Greek Anthology ; but some of these are also ascribed to Asclepiades and Callimachus. One of his epigrams, that on the statue of Opportunity by Lysippus (No. 13), is imitated by Ausonius (Epig. 12.)
Athenaeus (xiii. p. 596c.) quotes the Αἰθιοπία of Poseidippus, and elsewhere his Ἀσωπία, which seem to have been epic poems, and which Schweighäuser is probably right in referring to the author of the epigrams. (Brunck, Anal. vol. ii. pp. 46, 51, 528; Jacobs, Anth. Graec. vol. ii. pp. 46-52, vol. xiii. pp. 942, 943; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. iv. p. 493.)