Leonidas of Tarentum

The youth of Leonidas coincided with the first awakening of the Greek cities on the south coast of Italy to the danger threatening them from Rome and their first attempts to seek protection from the warlike kings of Epirus.

One of Leonidas's earliest extant poems chronicles a journey which he himself took to the court of Neoptolemus, son of Aeacides, seeking promise of protection.

Soon after the poet's arrival, Neoptolemus was assassinated by his more warlike cousin, Pyrrhus, who eagerly agreed to become the Greeks' champion, and Leonidas returned to Italy to rally his countrymen for war.

[3] Lower-class characters were rare in ancient Greek poetry but popular in Hellenistic art, seen in Leonidas of Tarentum's work.

Solidarity among professionals is particularly evident in funerary contexts, where it substitutes for traditional family bonds, as seen in the case of Theris, an aged fisherman, who is celebrated among his peers in death.