an Pindar.
Elsewhere Eusebius states that Bacchylides "was of repute" ([Greek:
egnorizeto]) in Ol. 87. 2 (431 B.C.); and Georgius Syncellus, using the
same word, gives Ol. 88 (428-425 B.C.). The phrase would mean that he was
then in the fulness of years and of fame. There is nothing improbable in
the supposition that he survived the beginning of the Peloponnesian war.

Bacchylides, like Simonides and Pindar, visited the court of Hiero I. of
Syracuse (478-467). In his fifth Ode (476 B.C.), the word [Greek: xenos]
(v. 11) has been taken to mean that he had already been the guest of the
prince; and, as Simonides went to Sicily in or about 477 B.C., that is not
unlikely. Ode iii. (468 B.C.) was possibly written at Syracuse, as verses
15 and 16 suggest. He there pays a high compliment to Hiero's taste in
poetry (ver. 3 ff.). A scholium on _Pyth._ ii. 90 (166) avers that Hiero
preferred the Odes of Bacchylides to those of Pindar. The Alexandrian
scholars interpreted a number of passages in Pindar as hostile allusions to
Bacchylides or Simonides. If the scholiasts [v.03 p.0122] are right, it
would appear that Pindar regarded the younger of the two Cean poets as a
jealous rival, who disparaged him to their common patron (schol. _Pyth._
ii. 52 f.), and as one whose poetical skill was due to study rather than to
genius (_Ol._ ii. 91-110). In _Olymp._ ii. 96 the dual [Greek: garueton],
if it does not refer to the uncle and nephew, remains mysterious; nor does
it admit of probable emendation.[2] One would gladly reject this tradition,
to which the scholia so frequently refer; yet it would be rash to assume
that it rested merely on surmise. The Alexandrians may have possessed
evidence on the subject which is now lost. It is tolerably certain that the
three poets were visitors at Hiero's court at about the same time: Pindar
and Bacchylides wrote odes of the same kind in his honour; and there was a
tradition that he preferred the younger poet. There is thus no intrinsic
improbability in the hypothesis that Pindar's haughty spirit had suffered,
or imagined, some mortification. It is noteworthy that, whereas in 476 and
470 both he and Bacchylides celebrated Hiero's victories, in 468 (the most
important occasion of all) Bacchylides alone was commissioned to do so;
although in that year Pindar composed an ode (_Olymp._ vi.) for another
Syracusan victor at the same festival. Nor is it difficult to conceive that
a despot such as Hiero, whose