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Lycophron's Alexandra is one of the most obscure literary works of the Hellenistic period. For centuries, scholars have trying to interpret the meaning of the story. There are many different parts of this work that have been under scrutiny. There is debate if Lycophron actually wrote the story, suspicions of what Lycrophron's relationship with the Romans was, and why was Alexandra written.

The poem is considered a tragedy, sitting at 1,474 trimeters long. The poem starts in Greece after Paris leaves after facing backlash for raping Helen. A slave of king Priam of Troy reports that he has had prophecies of Cassandra. The slave's prophecies predict the Trojan War, which includes a loss for Troy and win for Greece. The prophecies also predict the Romans taking over Greece.

Who Wrote Alexandra?
The first mention of Alexandra is from the first century A.D. by The ancient scholiast, whose report is traced back to Theon, an Alexandrian Grammarian (first century A.D.).

Through most of antiquity there seems to be a mostly universal opinion that the tragedy was written by Lycophron. The only real skeptics form antiquity instead believe that Alexandra was rather written by a homonymous poet who probably was a grandson of Lycophron and lived during the first half of the second century B.C. (Kosmetatou pg. 32).

Present day scholars have more doubts that Lycophron is the true author. Many support that it was written be a revisionist. The reasoning behind this is that there are many historical inconsistencies within Alexandra. Many of the key elements of the poem do not line up with the third century B.C. Most of this has to do with the poem bringing up Rome. Alexandra takes place in Hellenistic period, and says that Rome was on the rise to be a great world power. An example is in verses 1444-1450; in which the poet describes the Roman's successes against the Macedonians. Many historians believe that for somebody living in the second century B.C., describing the first Macedonian War as a victory for Rome is unfitting, the details and predictions for the Roman's triumph fit better with the second Macedonian War.

Many scholars are certain that the Ptolemaic court would not have commissioned a piece to praise the Romans. Although the Egyptians and Romans had established a political relationship in 273 B.C., the two powers did not do much diplomacy together during the rule of Ptolemy II. Egypt became more dependent on Rome after the second century B.C. when the nation was a shell of its former self due to a series of weak pharaohs. This is why many historians believe that Alexandra was written after the military success of the Roman general T. Quintus Flamininus over Philip V of Macedonia at Kynoskephalai, which, if correct, would then give 197 B.C. as a beginning date or creation.

After a long account of the triumph of Italian heroes and the wandering of

Greek Homeric heroes in Italy, Cassandra predicts a Roman military supremacy

over the entire.."