Dionysius, Calliphontis

Dionysius, son of Calliphon, is the name attached to a short Greek geographical poem in iambic verse describing the regions of Greece (the Descriptio Graeciae). He is known to us essentially only through this single work, and almost nothing reliable can be said about his life, homeland, or exact date. Scholars place him somewhere in the broad span between the Hellenistic and early Roman Imperial periods, but the question remains genuinely unsettled. He belongs to the tradition of periegetic and geographical poetry that catalogued places, peoples, and landmarks for a learned readership.