CAN'ON AL'EXANDRI'NITS (Lat.). The Alexandrine Canon, so called, is made up of lists of the best Greek writers in the various fields of literature, and is commonly attributed to Aris tophanes of Byzantium (q.v.) and Aristarchus (q.v.). It is possible that the older parts of the extant lists go hack to these scholars, but it is now agreed that the canon of the orators is as late as the Pergamene School. and indeed may have been prepared by the rhetor CaTilius in the time of Augustus; the canon of the historians is not earlier than the Second Century Be.;. and the canons of the sophists, grammarians, and physi cians all belong to our era. It has commonly been supposed that Aristophanes and Arista rebus selected the best authors in the several fields, and that this selection contributed to the loss of the works of other authors; but it has recently been shown in the Wilamowitz-A1311endorff Terfge srhiehte der grieehischen Lyrikcr (Berlin, 1900) that for the lyric poets, at least, the list repre seats only a codification of the works of the nine poets included, which had already been selected as hest by the judgment of preced ing centuries. That this was the with tiller parts of the can hardly lie doubt ed. Three lists of the best authors have been pre-erved to us, Ivhich do not, however, in all details: (a) One tirst published by :Mont fau•on, now best edited by 'Usenet- in his Dimly sills of Hadicarnassus, Dc haitatione Re/it/film (Bonn, 1889) ; (b) the second. tirst, edited by Cramer, .1 lleCdOta Grffell, IV. (Oxford, 1841 ) ; (•) a third, published with the two already named by Krochnert, Cononcsne l'oetarum Se•iplo•uin Arti Ileum per Antiquitatem fm runt! (liliMigsberg, 1897). Further information is given by Dimly sills of Ilalicarnassus in his rhetorical writings, Quintilian, book x., Velleins Pater•ulus, i. 10,
Proclus in his Crestomnthri, and by Tzetzes in his introduction to Ly•ophron's The older part of the canon published by Moatfancon is as follows: Epic Poets.—Iloine•, Pisander, Panyasis, Antimachns. Iambic Poets. —Simonides. Archilochus, Ilipponax. Truge dions.--Eschylus, Sophoeles, Euripides. Ion, Arclueus. Coolie Poets.—Obl Comedy: Epiehar Cratinus. Eupolis, Aristophanes. Phere crates, Crates, Plato. Middle Comedy: Anti planes, Alexis. Xew Comedy: Phi lippides, Diphilus, Philemon, Apollodorus.
Elegiac Pocts.—Callimus, Phil et as, Callimachus. Lyric Poets.—Aleman, Alcaus, Sappho, Stesichorus, Pindar, Bacchylides, Iby eus, .Anacreon, Simon ides. Oro ors.—Demos flumes, Lysias, Hype•ides, Isoerates, _Eschines, Lyeurgus, Isteus, Antiphon, Andoeides, Dinar •hus. llistor•icnrs.—Thucydides. Ile•odotns, Xeno phon, Philistus, Theoponmus, Ephorus. Anaxi menes, Callisthenes, Hellanicus. Polybius. To the lists of older poets should be added the list of the Tragic Pleiades, embracing poets of the Third Century B.C.—Lyeophron, Alexander, Sosi phanes, Sositheos, Dionysiades, Homer of Byzan tium. Philisons. The canon of the ten sophists cannot lie earlier than the Fifth Century A.D., for it includes besides Dio Chrysostom, Ni•ostra tus, Polemon, Herodes, Attieus, Philostratus, Aristides, the later Libanius, Themistius. me•ills, and Enna pills. The dates of the canons of the grammarians and physicians ale uncer tain. Consult : Susernild, liesehichto dir griechi schen. Litteratur in der A lexamiriner-Zcit, H. (Leipzig, 1592) ; Steffen, 19,.• Camille qui bicitu• Arislophumis rt Aristarchi ( Leipzig, 1871i) ; and the works quoted above.