Sotades (400–300 BCE)

Born 400 BCE, died 300 BCE.

Sotades (Greek: Σωτάδης; 3rd century BC) was an Ancient Greek poet. Sotades was born in Maroneia, either the one in Thrace, or in Crete. He lived in Alexandria during the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285–246 BC). The city was at that time a remarkable center of learning, with a great deal of artistic and literary activity, including epic poetry and the Great Library. Only a few genuine fragments of his work have been preserved; those in Stobaeus are generally considered spurious. Ennius translated some poems of this kind, included in his book of satires under the name of Sota. He had a son named Apollonius. He has been credited with the invention of the palindrome. Sotades was the chief representative of the writers of obscene and even satirical poems, called "kinaidoi" (Ancient Greek: Κίναιδοι), composed in the Ionic dialect and in the metre named after him.

Text from the Wikipedia article Sotades, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Everything else in 400 BCE