Alexander Aetolus, of Pleuron in Aetolia, Greek poet and man of letters, the only representative of Aetolian poetry, flourished about 280 BC.

When living in Alexandria he was commissioned by Ptolemy Philadelphus to arrange the tragedies and satyric dramas in the library; some ten years later he took up his residence at the court of Antigonus Gonatas, king of Macedonia.

His reputation as a tragic poet was so high that he was allotted a place in the Alexandrian tragic Pleiad; we only know the title of one play (Astragalistae.) He also wrote short epics, epigrams and elegies, the considerable fragments of which show learning and eloquence.

Meineke, Analecta Alexandrina (1853); Bergk, Poetae Lyrici Graeci; Couat, La Poésie alexandrine (1882).

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This article incorporates text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, which is in the public domain.