GRAGG. — THE GREEK EPIGRAM BEFORE 300 B. C. 



(fivvTa 8 ono)s ojKiaTu nvXns 'At'Sao Trfptjcrai 

 Ka\ Kfiadai TroXXiji* yriv eVa/xjjo-d/xei'oj', 



AP 9. 355). 



Iloirju Tis ^lOTOio Tanj] rpi^ov ; • . . 



Hi' a()a Toivbe bvoiv ivos atpeais, Jj ro yeve<T$ai 

 HrjdeTTOT tj to 6aveiv avriKa TiKTOfievov. 



Upon examining these passages we can say without hesitation that 

 the first is not an epigram and that the third is, — about the second we 

 are quite at a loss. Sometimes the presence of a particle, as 8e or ydp, 

 prevents our including such fragments among epigrams, for in the 

 whole Anthology such a particle introduces only one epigram which is 

 not manifestly corrupt or lacking its original beginning.32 In many 

 cases, however, we are left in doubt, although, even so, it is only in 

 name that they differ from true epigrams. If we should discover for a 

 certainty that they were parts of longer elegies, they would still be of 

 use for historical purposes, since the epigram itself is but a species of 

 elegy. 



Epigrams which have been handed down to us in MSS. seem, at first 

 sight, to furnish three kinds of evidence by which we may determine 

 their age. In some famous persons or events are celebrated ; some are 

 attributed to known poets ; in others we have only the diction or the 

 sentiment to help us. This testimony is not, however, so valuable as 

 it at first appears. It is easy to see how uncertain the first test is, for 

 it merely supplies us with a terminus post quern and, as a matter of 

 fact, of the numerous epitaphs purporting to be those of men of the 

 sixth century not one can with any probability be assigned to a date 

 earlier than the third century. 33 The second test is somewhat surer. 

 Still, when an epigram attributed to Anacreon 3* is found inscribed in 

 letters considerably later than the age of that poet, and when poems in 

 praise of the works of M)Ton 35 are assigned to the same author, it is 

 easy to see how blind is the trail we follow. More than this, recent 

 discoveries have proved that certain epigrams of four verses 36 preserved 



^* AP 9. 547, where 5' is evidently inserted for the sake of incbiding all the let- 

 ters of the alphabet in one and the same verse. 



2' The epitaphs Pr 238-47, which celebrate early sages, are an excellent example 

 of a set of epigrams composed probably by one author at a late period. Cf. also 

 Pi-ejffr's note, p. 199. 



** 124. (Arabic numerals refer to epigrams on pp. 46 if.) 



8B Anac. 11.5, 116. 



" 83 (= Sim. 96) and 125 ( = Sim. 150). 



