Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology/Leonidas (literary) 2.

LEO′NIDAS 2. Of Alexandria, was born, as he informs us (Ep. 8), on the banks of the Nile, whence he went to Rome (Ep. 27), and there taught grammar for a long time without attracting any notice, but ultimately he became very popular, and obtained the patronage of the imperial family. Leonidas' epigrams show that he flourished under Nero, and probably down to the reign of Vespasian. In the Greek Anthology, forty-three epigrams are ascribed to him, but some of these belong to Leonidas of Tarentum. The epigrams of Leonidas of Alexandria are of a very low order of merit. Several of them are distinguished by the petty conceit of having an equal number of letters in each distich; these are called ἰσόψηφα ἐπιγράμματα. (Jacobs, Anth. Graec. vol. xiii. pp. 908-909; Meineke, Prolusio ad utriusque Leonidae Carmina, Lips. 1791; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. iv. pp. 479-480.