His poetry is representative of the genre of martial exhortation elegy in which Tyrtaeus also specialized and which both Archilochus and Mimnermus appear to have composed.
[2] Along with these poets, all his near contemporaries, Callinus was considered the inventor of the elegiac couplet by some ancient critics.
[4] He is supposed to have flourished between the invasion of Asia Minor by the Cimmerians and their expulsion by Alyattes (630–560 BC).
These two events give the key to his poetry, in which he endeavours to rouse the indolent Ionians to a sense of patriotism.
One of the longest fragments, consisting of 21 lines of verse, is a patriotic exhortation to his fellow Ephesians urging them to fight the invading Cimmerians, who were menacing the Greek colonies in Asia Minor: It is honorable and splendid for a man to fight for his country and children and wedded wifeagainst enemies, but death will come whenever the Moirai so spin.