CRATES, of Mallus in Cilicia, a Greek grammarian and Stoic philosopher of the 2nd century B.C., leader of the literary school and head of the library of Pergamum. He was the chief repre sentative of the allegorical theory of exegesis, and maintained that Homer intended to express scientific or philosophical truths in the form of poetry. About 17o B.C., he visited Rome as ambassador of Attalus II., king of Pergamum, where he delivered lectures which gave the first impulse to the study of grammar and criticism among the Romans (Suetonius, De grammaticis, 2). His chief work was a critical and exegetical commentary on Homer.
See C. Wachsmuth, De Cratete Mallota (186o) , containing an ac count of the life, pupils and writings of Crates; J. E. Sandys, Hist. of Class. Schol. i. 156 (1906) .