out of the Anthology as we possess it; Melanippides, a celebrated
writer of dithyrambic poetry in the latter half of the fifth century
B.C., of which a few fragments survive, and Euphemus, Parthenis, and
Polycleitus, of whom nothing whatever is known. The remaining thirty-
three poets in Meleager's list all belong to the Alexandrian period,
and bring the series down continuously to Meleager himself.

One of the epigrams in the Anthology of Strato[8] professes to be the
colophon {xoronis} to Meleager's collection; but it is a stupid and
clumsy forgery of an obviously later date, probably by Strato himself,
or some contemporary, and is not worth quoting. The proem to the
Garland is a work of great ingenuity, and contains in single words and
phrases many exquisite criticisms. The phrase used of Sappho has
become proverbial; hardly less true and pointed are those on Erinna,
Callimachus, and Plato. All the flowers are carefully and
appropriately chosen with reference to their poets, and the whole is
done with the light and sure touch of a critic who is also a poet
himself.

A scholiast on the Palatine MS. says that Meleager's Anthology was
arranged in alphabetical order {xata stoikheion}. This seems to mean
alphabetical order of epigrams, not of authors; and the statement is
borne out by some parts of the Palatine and even of the Planudean
Anthologies, where, in spite of the rearrangement under subjects,
traces of alphabetical arrangement among the older epigrams are still
visible. The words of the scholiast imply that there was no further
arrangement by subject. It seems most reasonable to suppose that the
epigrams of each author were placed together; but of this there is no
direct evidence, nor can any such arrangement be certainly inferred
from the state of the existing Anthologies.