Editing Callimachus (section)

==Life==
[[File:Ptolemy II MAN Napoli Inv5600.jpg|thumb|alt=Dark stone bust of a young man wearing a headband|Callimachus is thought to have worked under the patronage of [[Ptolemy II Philadelphus]]. This bust of Ptolemy is held at the [[National Archaeological Museum, Naples]].]]
An entry in the ''[[Suda]]'', a 10th-century [[Byzantine]] [[encyclopaedia]], is the main source about the life of Callimachus. Although the entry contains factual inaccuracies, it enables the re-construction of his biography by providing some otherwise unattested information.{{Sfn|Ferguson|1980|p=23}} Callimachus was born into a prominent family in [[Cyrene, Libya|Cyrene]], a Greek city on the coast of modern-day Libya.{{Sfn|Ferguson|1980|p=23}} He refers to himself as "son of Battus" ({{Langx|grc|Βαττιάδης|translit=Battiades}}), but this may be an allusion to the city's mythological founder [[Battus (mythology)|Battus]] rather than to his father.{{Sfn|Gutzwiller|2007|pp=61–62}} His grandfather, also named Callimachus, had served the city as a general. His mother's name was Megatima, mistakenly given as Mesatma by the ''Suda''. His unknown date of birth is placed around 310 BC.{{Sfn|Ferguson|1980|p=23}}

During the 280s, Callimachus is thought to have studied under the philosopher [[Praxiphanes]] and the grammarian Hermocrates at [[Alexandria]], an important centre of Greek culture.{{Sfn|Ferguson|1980|pp=23–24}} He appears to have experienced a period of relative poverty while working as a schoolteacher in the suburbs of the city.{{Sfn|Ferguson|1980|p=24}} The truthfulness of this claim is disputed by the classicist [[Alan Cameron (classicist)|Alan Cameron]] who describes it as "almost certainly outright fiction".{{Sfn|Cameron|1995|p=5}} Callimachus then entered into the patronage of the [[Ptolemaic dynasty|Ptolemies]], the Greek ruling dynasty of Egypt, and was employed at the [[Library of Alexandria]]. According to the ''Suda'', his career coincided with the reign of [[Ptolemy II Philadelphus]], who became sole ruler of Egypt in 283 BC.{{Sfn|Ferguson|1980|p=24}} [[Classicist]] John Ferguson puts the latest date of Callimachus's establishment at the imperial court at 270 BC.{{Sfn|Ferguson|1980|p=24}}

Despite the lack of precise sources, the outlines of Callimachus's working life can be gathered from his poetry. Poems belonging to his period of economic hardship indicate that he began writing in the 280s BC, while his poem ''[[Aetia (Callimachus)|Aetia]]'' shows signs of having been composed in the reign of [[Ptolemy III Euergetes]], who ascended to the throne in 246 BC. Contemporary references suggest that Callimachus was writing until about 240 BC, and Ferguson finds it likely that he died by 235 BC, at which time he would have been 75 years old.{{Sfn|Ferguson|1980|p=26}}