CHRISTODORUS  , of

Coptos in Egypt, epic poet, flourished during the reign of Anastasius I . (A.n . 491-518) . According to Suidas, he was the author of IIIvrpta, accounts of the foundation of various cities; Au&axa, the mythical history of Lydia; 'Icavpuda, the conquest of Isauria by Anastasius; three books of epigrams; and many other works . In addition to two epigrams (Anthol . Pal. vii . 697, 698) we possess a description of eighty statues of gods, heroes and famous men and women in the gymnasium of Zeuxippus at Constantinople . This Ee paver, consisting of 4r6 hexameters, forms the second book of the Palatine Anthology . The writer's chief models are Homer and Nonnus, whom he follows closely in the structure of his hexameters . Opinions are divided as to the merits of the work . Some critics regard it as of great importance for the history of art and a model of description; others consider it valueless, alike from the historical, mythological and archaeological points of view . See F .

Baumgarten, De Christodoro poets Theban (1881), and his article in Pauly-Wissowa's Realencycdopadie, iii . 2 (1899); W . Christ, Geschichte der griechischen Litteratur (1898) .