person
Callimachus of Cyrene
Callimachus
also: Callimachi, Callimachus
The leading Hellenistic poet and scholar of third-century BC Alexandria, master of the learned epigram and elegy. Cicero cites his epigram on Cleombrotus of Ambracia and his maxim that Priam wept more than Troilus.
Reading notes
- Tusculan Disputations §1.84 the epigram of Callimachus on Theombrotus of Ambracia
An epigram of the Hellenistic poet Callimachus on Cleombrotus (here Theombrotus) of Ambracia, who, after reading Plato's Phaedo on the soul's immortality, threw himself from a wall into the sea. A cautionary instance of the doctrine taken too literally.
- Tusculan Disputations §1.93 Callimachus is not wrong to say that Priam wept far more often than Troilus
A maxim of Callimachus: Priam, who lived to old age and saw Troy fall, wept far more than his son Troilus, who died young. Cicero turns it against the assumption that an early death is the greater misfortune.