Elegy and Iambus, Volume I
J. M. Edmonds, Ed.

---

---

“The Teucrians from Crete, of whom we hear first in the Elegiac poet Callinus, and later in many writers after him, were answered with the following oracle, etc.” Strabo Geography [the temple of Apollo Smintheus]

---

“According to Callisthenes, Sardis was first taken by the Cimmerians and later by the Trerians and Lycians —his authority for this is the Elegiac poet Callinus —and last of all came its capture in the days of Cyrus and Croesus.¹ Now Callinus declares that the Cimmerian invasion which involved the sack of Sardis was directed against the Esioneans, and for this reason the Scepsian （Demetrius） surmises that Esioneans is the Ionic form of Asioneans , Esionia perhaps being equivalent to Asia, like Meonia in Homer, where we read ‘In the Asian meadowland beside the streams of Cayster.’ The city made a remarkable recovery afterwards because of the fertility of the soil, becoming second to none of its neighbours, but in recent times has lost much of its population through earthquakes.” Strabo Geography [the temple of Apollo]

---

“In ancient times the Magnesians, after a long period of prosperity, were unfortunate enough to be exterminated by a Cimmerian people called the Trerians, and in the following year their territory was occupied by the Milesians. Now Callinus speaks of the Magnesians as a still prosperous people and succesful in their war against the Ephesians, while Archilochus clearly knows of their destruction when he says: ‘I bewail the woes of Thasos, not of Magnesia’ from which we may judge that he comes later than Callinus. It is an earlier invasion of the Cimmerians of which Callinus speaks in the line ‘Now comes upon us the army of the dastard Cimmerians,’ which he connects with the taking of Sardis.” Strabo Geography [the temple of Apollo Smintheus]

---

“We are told by Herodotus² that the Pamphylians belonged to a combination of peoples who went forth from Troy with Amphilochus and Calchas. Though most of them remained behind, some were scattered over the face of the earth. According to Callinus, Calchas died at Clarus, but the peoples crossed the Taurus under Mopsus and partly stayed in Pamphylia and partly were distributed through Cilicia and Syria as far as Phoenicia.” Strabo Geography [the temple of Apollo Smintheus]

---

“The Magnesians of Magnesia on the Maeander were destroyed, as we read in the Elegiac Poems of Callinus and in Archilochus, by excessive luxury, their city being captured by the Ephesians.” Athenaeus Doctors at Dinner

---

“A few years later, Thebes was attacked by an expedition under Thersander, called by the Greeks that of the Epigoni or Young Generation... On this war the Thebans possessed Epic poems, and these Callinus, when he had occasion to speak of them, ascribed to Homer, an ascription which finds agreement among many competent authorities, and for my part I put this poetry second only to the Iliad and the Odyssey. ” Pausanias Description of Greece [the Seven against Thebes]

---

“Among the chief writers in this metre Proclus places Callinus of Ephesus and Mimnermus of Colophon, and also Philetas son of Telephus, of Cos, and Callimachus son of Battus.” Photius Library [on Elegy]

---

“Semonides is made contemporary with Archilochus, and Callinus comes a little earlier, Archilochus speaking of Magnesia as destroyed³ and Callinus as still flourishing. Eumelus of Corinth is said to have belonged to an earlier date and been contemporary with Archias the founder of Syracuse.⁴” Clement of Alexandria Miscellanies: