Lygdamus

Lygdamus (probably a pseudonym) was a Roman poet who wrote love poems in Classical Latin. Six of his elegies, addressed to a girl named Neaera, are preserved in the ''Appendix Tibulliana'' alongside the apocryphal works of Tibullus. In poem 5, line 6, he describes himself as young and in 5.18 gives his birth year as the year "when both consuls died by equal fate" (that is, 43 BC). This line, however, is identical to one in Ovid's ''Tristia'' from AD 11, and it has been much debated by scholars. One suggestion, supported by the numerous commonalities between Lygdamus and Ovid, is that "Lygdamus" is merely a pen name used by the young Ovid; other scholars have suggested that Lygdamus was a separate poet from Ovid and was imitated by him; they assume that the line quoted above is an interpolation. Some more recent scholars have argued that Lygdamus lived much later than Ovid and imitated his style. No other author mentions Lygdamus, making the mystery of his real identity all the more difficult.

The name "Lygdamus" was a common slave-name in Rome, and it has been conjectured that the author may have chosen this pen name to indicate that he is a "slave of love". The name "Neaera" is common in Greek mythology and is also thought to be a pseudonym. Provided by Wikipedia