“When Antimachus of Colophon and a certain Niceratus of Heraclea were competing at the Lysandreia in poems in his honour, he gave the prize to Niceratus, and Antimachus in anger destroyed his poem. But Plato, who was then a young man and admired his poetry, tried to sweeten the bitterness of his defeat by saying that it is the ignorant who suffer by their ignorance, as the blind by their blindness.” Plutarch Life of Lysander
“Shortly after the Peace （of 404 B.C.） died Darius the King of Asia. . It is about this time that Apollodorus of Athens puts the floruit of the poet Antimachus.” Diodorus of Sicily Historical Library
“The following were the means to consolation taken by the poet Antimachus. Upon the death of his wife Lyda, to whom he was deeply attached, he wrote to assuage his grief the Elegy called by her name, and enumerating the misfortunes of the heroes, lessened his own sorrow by recounting the ills of other men.1” Plutarch Consolation to Apollonius
“There are three kinds of answers to a question, the first that of bare necessity, the second that of kindness, the third that of redundance. . The redundant or garrulous answerer, if he happen to have read Antimachus of Colophon, will say, etc.2” Plutarch Garrulity
“It would be impossible for Demosthenes to make the remark recorded of the poet Antimachus, who, when the company assembled to hear him read that great volume of his that you know so well3 was finally reduced to Plato, exclaimed ‘I shall read on all the same; I count Plato as worth all the rest put together.’ And rightly so; for a recondite poem should move the approval of few, whereas a popular disquisition asks the assent of men in general.” Cicero Brutus
“Neither was Lyde so dear to the Clarian poet nor Bittis to her Coan,4 as you, dear wife of my bosom, who are worthy maybe of a less miserable husband but not of a better.” Ovid Sorrows
“Antimachus: —Of Colophon, son of Hyparchus; grammarian and poet . . . pupil of Stesimbrotus; he flourished before the time of Plato.” Suidas Lexicon
“In Antimachus, on the contrary, we have to praise force, weight, and a style very far from commonplace. But though nearly all scholars agree that he should be placed second （to Hesiod）, he is deficient in feeling, sweetness, arrangement of matter, and in art generally, thus making it clear how different a second may be from a good second.” Quintilian Principles of Oratory [on Hesiod and Antimachus]
“There have been many exponents of the austere style. . . . Outstanding in the epic are Antimachus of Colophon and the natural philosopher Empedocles, in lyric Pindar, in tragedy Aeschylus, in history Thucydides, in political oratory Antiphon.” Dionysius of Halicarnassus Literary Composition
“Antimachus' study was vigour, a challenging ruggedness, and unusualness.” Dionysius of Halicarnassus Criticism of the Early Writers
“The Laconic is not, what you take it to be, the use of few syllables, but the use of few syllables about a great deal. In this way I call Homer extremely brief and Antimachus long.” Gregory of Nazianzus Epistles
“According to Heracleides of Pontus, Plato preferred the works of Antimachus to those of Choerilus which stood then in so high repute, and persuaded Heracleides himself to go to Colophon and collect Antimachus' poems.” Proclus on Plato
“For if we find technical perfection in a poet, he is sure to abound in calculated effect and bombast, employing metaphors nearly everywhere, like Antimachus.” Proclus on Plato
“ That obscurity is plainly objected to by Callimachus is seen in his Epigrams , where he ridicules the Lyde of Antimachus thus: “Lyde and writing obscure instead of clear.
””Scholiast on Dionysius Periegetes
“ Asclepiades:— “Lyde am I by name and race;5 but Antimachus has made me nobler than all the daughters of Codrus.6 For who has not sung of me? and who has not read Lyde, the common work of the Muses and Antimachus?
””Palatine Anthology
“He is an emulator of Antimachus, and therefore uses many of his phrases; which is why he sometimes uses the Doric.” Scholiast on Nicander
“For just as the poems of Antimachus and the paintings of Dionysius, both men of Colophon, possessing as they do power and vigour, give the impression of being forced and laboured, whereas the pictures of Nicomachus and the lines of Homer combine power and grace with the appearance of having been produced with deftness and ease, so, etc.” Plutarch Life of Timoleon
“The History of Agatharchides or, as some writers call him, Agatharchus, was read. He is said to have written an Epitome of the Lyde of Antimachus.” Photius Library
“Cassius Longinus: —Philosopher; . . . flourished in the reign of the emperor Aurelian （A.D. 270-5） . . wrote . . a Glossary to Antimachus .” Suidas
