Cavafy described himself as a ‘poet-historian’; he primarily wrote poems on history – a historical poet, which is unusual I think?

His settings range through the wide Greek world, ancient to medieval – from Troy to Byzantium – with a focus on his own city of Alexandria. The people he gives voices to can be famous names like Antony and Julian or obscure petty kinglets from Syria. Among his common themes are the uneasiness of satellites of Rome in the eastern Mediterranean, and the encroachments of Christianity, seen from either side. He is often ironic, a bit acid in his observations, whether he deals with politicians or with sophists. His style is simple and direct (everybody says that) and most of the poems are short snatches of history, a dashed-off situation, a voice, a perspective pulled out of the past – frequently an ordinary voice, an unexpected perspective.

I think anybody with an interest in the Hellenic world might get into these poems, as an alternate kind of historical fiction. I found them easy and quick to read, like snapshots one after the other.

Interspersed with the historical poems are present-day verses on being gay in Alexandria, late 19th—early 20th. These also are strikingly simple and direct, and I suspect in the past they have been better known. At least I met the love poems in anthology years ago, and admired them, and glanced into his historical poems and thought… interesting… but I’ve never heard of these people. They didn’t look easy of entry. Perhaps if you know who Demetrius Soter is?

I still don’t know who Demetrius Soter is, but I like his poem and understand his situation: ambivalence of a Syrian king in Rome. I have read the Rae Dalven translations, which I find eminently simple and direct, smooth, effective. Out of an interest in his historical poetry, I’ve ordered the new, heavily annotated translations by classics scholar Daniel Mendelsohn; but before I even lay eyes on it, I want to say that I found the skimpily-noted Rae Dalven perfectly adequate. I didn’t look at the notes; I didn’t want to, I believe the poems speak for themselves, whether or not you’ve heard of whoever’s talking.

My own iconic poem remains ‘Expecting the Barbarians’; and I like the Rae Dalven of this one, out of five or so versions I’ve seen on the web. ( )

The complete poems of Constantine Cavafy (1863-1933), the Alexandrian Greek poet. Cavafy's work is as much focused on history as on his present. 'Expecting the Barbarians' (p. 18) is a poem that has had a tremendous influence on me. ( )