d in that district, to extol
the bravery and power of any one, is to say that "she does not fear even
the 'Child of the Ball.'"

Selections used by permission of Cassell Publishing Company

ALCAEUS

(Sixth Century B.C.)

Alcaeus, a contemporary of the more famous poet whom he addressed as
"violet-crowned, pure, sweetly-smiling Sappho," was a native of Mitylene
in Lesbos. His period of work fell probably between 610 and 580 B.C. At
this time his native town was disturbed by an unceasing contention for
power between the aristocracy and the people; and Alcaeus, through the
vehemence of his zeal and his ambition, was among the leaders of the
warring faction. By the accidents of birth and education he was an
aristocrat, and in politics he was what is now called a High Tory. With
his brothers, Cicis and Antimenidas, two influential young nobles as
arrogant and haughty as himself, he resented and opposed the slightest
concession to democracy. He was a stout soldier, but he threw away his
arms at Ligetum when he saw that his side was beaten, and afterward
wrote a poem on this performance, apparently not in the least mortified
by the recollection. Horace speaks of the matter, and laughingly
confesses his own like misadventure.

[Illustration: Alcaeus]

When the kindly Pittacus was chosen dictator, he was compelled to banish
the swashbuckling brothers for their abuse of him. But when Alcaeus
chanced to be taken prisoner, Pittacus set him free, remarking that
"forgiveness is better than revenge." The irreconcilable poet spent his
exile in Egypt, and there he may have seen the Greek oligarch who lent
his sword to Nebuchadnezzar, and whom he greeted in a poem, a surviving
fragment of which is thus paraphrased by John Addington Symonds:--

From the ends of the earth thou art come,
Back to thy home;
The ivory hilt of thy blade
With gold is embossed and inlaid;
Since for Babylon's host a great deed
Thou didst work in their need,
Slaying a warrior, an athlete of might,
Royal, whose height
Lacked of five cubits one span--
A terrible man.

Alcaeus is reputed to have been in love with Sappho, the glorious, but
only a line or two survives to confirm the tale. Most of his lyrics,
like those of his fellow-poets, seem to have been drinking songs,
combined, says Symonds, with reflections upon life, and appropriate
descriptions of the different seasons. "No time was amiss for