Twenty-two of his short poems or epigrams survive in the Greek Anthology, from some of which his date may be fixed at around the late 3rd/early 2nd century BC.
Philip contented himself with writing an epigram in reply to that of Alcaeus, in which he gave the Messenian a very broad hint of the fate he might expect if he fell into his hands.
[2] This reply was enough to lead French classical scholar Claudius Salmasius to suppose that Alcaeus was actually crucified by Philip.
[4] Those epigrams of Alcaeus which bear internal evidence of their date were written between the years 219 and 196.
But in the last class there are several which must, from internal evidence, have been written by Alcaeus of Messene, and there seems no reason to doubt his being the author of all twenty-two.