Asclepiades of Samos

Asclēpiadēs, of Samos (b. c.320 BC), also called Sicelidas, one of the earliest writers of the Greek literary epigram, and in particular of the love epigram, in the Hellenistic age, a contemporary of Philetas and Theocritus. Many of his poems survive in the Greek Anthology. He gave his name to the ‘asclepiad’ metres, used earlier by Sappho and Alcaeus, because he revived them.

Asclepiades of Samos was an ancient Greek epigrammatist and lyric poet. He was a friend of Theocritus, who flourished about 270 BC. He was the earliest and most important of the convivial and erotic epigramists. Only a few of his compositions are actual inscriptions. Others sing the praises of the poets whom he especially admired, but the majority of them are love songs. It is doubtful whether he is the author of all the epigrams (some 40 in number) which bear his name in the Greek Anthology. He possibly gave his name to the Asclepiad metre.

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