a Greek bucolic poet, flourished at Syracuse about the close of the third century B.C. His genius was fostered by a study of the works, and probably by the friendship, of the pastoral poet Bion. He was also, according to Suidas, acquainted with the grammarian Aristarchus. Theocritus was his great model; but instead of the exquisite simplicity of that celebrated poet, he often displayed an excess of ornament and an over-refinement of style. His four extant idyls are Fugitive Love, Europa, An Elegy on Bion, and Megara. They have been usually edited with the works of Bion. (See Bion.) Many modern writers of different nations have imitated and translated them.