sometimes also called Alcmaeon, one of the most ancient, and, in the opinion of the Alexandrian critics, the most distinguished among the lyric poets of Greece. According to one account he was by birth a Lydian, while others state that he was a native of Sparta, where, at any Aleemanian rate, he lived from a very early age. The time at which he flourished is uncertain, though it is generally assumed that it was the period between the years 620 and 640 n.c. Aleman may in some respects be regarded as the father of lyric poetry among the Greeks, and it was probably for this reason that the Alexandrian critics put him at the head of their lyric canon. His poems, which seem to have formed a collection of six books, are known to us only from a number of small fragments. Many of them were of an erotic character, but others of them were hymns, and scolia. All were written in the vigorous broad dialect of the Dorians. The best collection of these fragments was published by F. G. Welcker, Giesen, 1815, 4to; they are also contained in Bergk's "Poeta Lyrici Graeci," 1852, 8vo.