Alcaeus of Messene

Alcaeus of Messene (Greek: Ἀλκαῖος ὁ Μεσσήνιος) was an ancient Greek poet, who flourished between 219 and 196 BC. Twenty-two of his short poems or epigrams survive in the Greek Anthology, from some of which his date may be fixed at around the late 3rd/early 2nd century BC. Some of his poems are on literary themes, but most are political. Alcaeus was contemporary with Philip V, king of Macedon and son of Demetrius II of Macedon, against whom several of his poems are pointed, apparently from patriotic feelings. One of these, however, gave more offense to the Roman general Flamininus than to Philip, as Alcaeus ascribed the victory of the battle of Cynoscephalae to the Aetolians as much as to the Romans.

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