Alexander Lychnus

Who is Alexander Lychnus?

Alexander surnamed Lychnus, was an ancient Greek rhetorician and poet. He was a native of Ephesus, from which he is sometimes called Alexander Ephesius, and must have lived shortly before the time of Strabo, who mentions him among the more recent Ephesian authors, and also states that he took a part in the political affairs of his native city. Strabo ascribes to him a history, and poems of a didactic kind, viz. one on astronomy and another on geography, in which he describes the great continents of the world, treating of each in a separate work or book, which, as we learn from other sources, bore the name of the continent of which it contained an account. What kind of history it was that Strabo alludes to, is uncertain. The so-called Aurelius Victor quotes the first book of a history of the Marsic War by Alexander the Ephesian; but this authority is considered doubtful.

Some writers have supposed that this Alexander is the author of the history of the succession of Greek philosophers, which is often referred to by Diogenes Laërtius; but this work belonged probably to Alexander Polyhistor.