Under Ptolemy II Philadelphus, who ruled Egypt in the middle of the third century B.C.E., Alexandria became the brilliant multicultural capital of the Greek world. Theocritus's poem in praise of Philadelphus-at once a Greek king and an Egyptian ph...

Theocritus was the creator of ancient Greek bucolic poetry during the 3rd century BC. He was born in Sicily and probably lived in Alexandria for a while, where he wrote about everyday life. It is also possible that Theocritus was born in Syracus...