Political and literary considerations alike suggest that the Alexandra dates from about 190 BC and that its closing sections celebrate the victory of the Roman consul Titus Quinctius Flamininus over Philip V of Macedon at the battle of Kynoskephalai in 197 BC. Lykophron’s world is essentially the Mediterranean and Black Sea zones. It ranges from Spain across to Phoenicia. All the kingdoms which succeeded Alexander the Great are featured in the poem, but the Seleukids less prominently than the rest. The poem’s Spartan and Theban myths are shown to have resonance for the Hellenistic period. Only Athens is regarded as a place of memory. Some great federations, notably the Boiotian, Aitolian, and Lokrian, are traceable in the poem, and with a particularly Hellenistic twist.
