Asclepiades of Samos

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Asclepiades of Samos was an ancient Greek epigrammatist and lyric poet, as well as a friend of Theocritus, who flourished about 270 BC. He was the earliest and most important of the convivial and erotic epigramists. Only a few of his compositions are actual inscriptions; others sing the praises of the poets whom he especially admired, but the majority of them are love songs. It is doubtful whether he is the author of all the epigrams (some 40 in number) which bear his name in the Greek Anthology. He possibly gave his name to the Asclepiad metre.