Antimachus
Antimachus of Colophon, or of Claros, was a Greek poet and grammarian, who flourished about 400 BC. • Illustration — Herm of Antimachus from Colophon
Also recorded as Antimachus of Colophon · Antimachus the Colophonian · Antimachus of Clarus · Antimachus of Claros
Antimachus
CC BY-SA 4.0
- Born
- 500 · Colophon.
- Died
- 348
- Occupation
- poet · epigrammatist · elegist · writer · grammarian
- Fields
- poetry · linguistics · Ancient Greek
- Languages
- Ancient Greek
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Antimachus. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
gnd · 119271745 · wikidata · Q577769 · wikipedia · Antimachus
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
The documentary record
Statements marked “Documentary record” are set in the article beside the passage they confirm. Each is read from the authority records of the institutions named here; select “Prove” to see the record it was read from, where in that record, and when.
Institutions cited
Bibliothèque nationale de France
Complete reading chain (JSON)In this article
Life
Life
Scarcely anything is known of his life. The Suda claims that he was a pupil of the poets Panyassis and Stesimbrotus.
Documentary record
Antimachus is documented in the authority records of the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
Work
Work
His poetical efforts were not generally appreciated, although he received encouragement from his younger contemporary Plato (Plutarch, Lysander, 18). The emperor Hadrian, however, would later consider him superior to Homer. His chief works were: an epic Thebaid, an account of the expedition of the Seven against Thebes and the war of the Epigoni; and an elegiac poem Lyde, so called from the poet's mistress, for whose death he endeavoured to find consolation telling stories from mythology of heroic disasters (Plutarch, Consul, ad Apoll. 9; Athenaeus xiii. 597). Antimachus was the founder of "learned" epic poetry, and the forerunner of the Alexandrian school, whose critics allotted him the next place to Homer. He also prepared a critical recension of the Homeric poems. He is to be distinguished from Antimachus of Teos, a much earlier poet to whom the lost Cyclic epic Epigoni was apparently ascribed (though the attribution may result from confusion).
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
348
Antimachus died.
500
Antimachus born at Colophon.
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Antimachus”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q577769: Antimachus
Reputable secondary · Wikidata
authority file
- Gemeinsame Normdatei 119271745, Antimachus, Teius.
General reference · Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Antimachus, revision 1286477742 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.FGrHist 244 F 74.
- 2.Frr. l9-24; 28.
- 3.Frr. 29, 30.
- 4.Frr. 3l-35.
- 5.Pseudo-Acrone, scolio a Orazio, Ars Poetica, 146.
- 6.Frr. 56-73 Wyss.
- 7.Infatti il Fr. 72 Wyss è ascritto al secondo libro.
- 8.Antologia Palatina, IX 63.
- 9.Catullo nel carme 95, dedicato alla Zmyrna di Cinna, giudica "gonfio" Antimaco (tumido ...Antimacho).
- 10.Fr. 78.
- 11.Fr. 84.
- 12.Frr. 67-77.
- 13.Frr. 81-83.
- 14.Fr. 92.
- 15.Fr. 85.
- 16.Frr. 88-89.
- 17.Fr. 90.
- 18.p. 379, 11 Meineke; cfr. P. Carrara, Sull'Artemide di Antimaco (fr.75 Wyss), in "Prometheus", XII (1986), pp. 213-216.
- 19.Fr. 129.
- 20.Fozio cod. 239, = 318b.22-322a.40 ed. Bekker
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
authority file
Gemeinsame Normdatei 119271745, Antimachus, Teius.Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
Further particulars
Held on the record
Further particulars
Open the remaining particulars
The authorities additionally record the headings Antimachus of Colophon, Antimachus the Colophonian, Antimachus of Clarus and Antimachus of Claros. His recorded language was Ancient Greek.
Identity and origins
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Books
39,529 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Anthony Winkler PrinsAuthor
- Anthony ZinniAuthor
- Anthoula Stathopoulou-VafopoulouAuthor
- Antigone KefalaAuthor
- Antimachus of HeliopolisAuthor
- Antiochus KantemirAuthor
- Antipater of SidonAuthor
- Antipater of ThessalonicaAuthor
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Antimachus?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.