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Introduction
1. Name and Identity
Little is known of Anaxandrides’ (PAA 126725) life. His father is said to have
been named Anaxandros (test. 1), although this may be a deduction from
Anaxandrides’ own name.1 He apparently originated from Camirus (test. 1-2),
on the northwest coast of Rhodes, although test. 1 adds the conflicting report
that according to some (κατά δέ τινας) he was from Colophon, on the Ionian
coast northeast of Samos. The testimonia thus agree that Anaxandrides was
not an Athenian and that he came from the eastern Mediterranean. But the
likely cause of the discrepancy is that one or both of these assertions is based
on a false deduction from one of Anaxandrides’ plays or, less likely, a play
by a rival;2 even the claim that he was not Athenian thus cannot be made
with complete confidence.3 Over the course of the fourth century, foreigners
competed in increasing numbers in the major Athenian dramatic festivals; if
Anaxandrides was a foreigner, he will have been among the earliest of these.

1 Kaibel 1894. 2078 suggests that the father’s name may be ‘eine billige Fiction.’
2 E.g. Ar. Ach. 652-4 led to the claim that Aristophanes (test. 10) was Aeginetan.
Alternatively, the deduction could have been made from a play of a rival poet who
slanderously attacked Anaxandrides as a non-Athenian. Ancient scholarship was
capable of uncertainty regarding the nationality of even so well-attested a figure as
Aristophanes (e. g. Ar. test. 2 lists several possibilities, including the Rhodian cities
of Camiros and Lindos); cf. Antiph. test. 1 (several possibilities, including Rhodes);
Lefkowitz 1981. 112.
3 The name Anaxandrides is rare at Athens, with only two other attested examples
(PA 802 = PAA 126735 [ca. 425-406 BC]; PA 801 = PAA 126730 [ca. 330-320 BC]).
LGPNII s. v. #3, however, lists the poet Anaxandrides as possibly Athenian. The
name is no more common on Rhodes, for which LGPN I s. v. records only two
examples (both third century) aside from the poet. Anaxandros, on the other hand,
while equally rare at Athens (only PA 803 = PAA 126745, the father of Anaxandrides
[PA 801 = PAA 126730]), is more common on Rhodes (excluding the father of the
poet, LGPNI s.v. list ten examples, including two from Camiros). But the Rhodian
examples, with the exception of a man from Kamyndioi dated ca. 325 BC (IGXII (1)
761.3), all are third century or later. If the poet is taken to be an Athenian, he may
be a relation of [Άναξανδρ]ίδης [Ά]ναξάνδρου of Eleusis (PA 801, where dated to
the end of the fourth century; LGPNII s. v. #1 dates him to ca. 330-320 BC), but the
restoration of this man’s name is little more than guesswork; possibly relevant is
the fact that he was apparently a tax farmer who collected the metoikion.