a celebrated Greek poet, was a native of Cyrene, and a descendant of the illustrious house of the Battidae; whence by Ovid and others he is called Bat-tidaeus. He flourished under the Ptolemies Philadelphus and Euergetes, and probably succeeded Zenodotus as chief librarian of the famous Alexandrian library, an office he held from about B.C. 260 till his death, which took place about B.C. 240. He was regarded, according to Quintilian, as the prince of Greek elegiac poets. His style is elegant and nervous, yet his excellencies are rather the result of excessive elaboration than of genuine poetical power: hence Ovid (Am. i. 15) says of him—Quamvis ingenio non valet, arte valet. Perhaps the Hymn to Apollo should be excepted from this criticism.

Callimachus was a learned critic and grammarian, and the instructor of Eratosthenes, Aristophanes of Byzantium, and Apollonius Rhodius. He wrote in prose and in verse on a great variety of subjects; but his only existing works are six hymns, seventy-three epigrams, and some fragments of elegies. Of the various imitations of Callimachus by the Roman poets, the small poem by Catullus, De Coma Berenices, is the most celebrated. Among the numerous editions of his works the following may be noticed:—By Spanheim, Ultraj. 1697, re-edited by Ernesti, Lugd. Batav. 1761; by Blomfield, Lond. 1815; by Voizer, Lips. 1817.

an architect and statuary, the inventor of the Corinthian column, was probably a native of Corinth. He is said to have derived the idea of the Corinthian capital from observing an acanthus plant surrounding a tile-covered basket which had been placed over a tomb. His era is uncertain; but as the Corinthian column was used in B.C. 396 by Scopas, the architect of the temple of Athena Alea at Tegea, he must have lived before that time. Though Callimachus worked admirably in marble, he is said to have spoiled his original conceptions by excessive elaboration, which rendered his style artificial. (Plin. H. N. xxxiv. 8. s. 19.)

Pliny mentions a painter named Callimachus, who is generally identified with the statuary, though without sufficient authority.