Alcaeus

Alcaeus, a lyric poet of Lesbos, flourished about 600 B.C. He appears to have actively assisted the nobles of the island in their struggle against the tyrants, and, having been banished, he ended his life in unknown exile. Of his ten books of odes - political, military, religious, and amatory - but a few fragments have come down to us. He wrote in the AEolian dialect, and the fiery vigour of his verses meets with high praise from Horace ( Ode ii. 13), who adopted several of his measures, notably the Alcaic stanza.