Anth. Pal. 5.1-38, selections in Hadavas

Early Hellenistic (3rd c. BCE)

5.23 (= Hadavas Callimachus 23). Fly baby, may you sleep like you make me sleep, on this cold porch. Your gray hair will make you remember all of this.

Later Hellenistic (1st c. BCE)

5.24 (= Hadavas Meleager 6). My soul warns me to flee Heliodora's jealousy, and I've understood her tears and rage before. But I don't have the strength; the coquette warns me herself, as she kisses me.

5.8 (= Hadavas Meleager 15). Holy night and lamp, you alone were our witnesses to our oaths to love forever. But now he says his oaths are carried on water, and you see him in others' laps.

5.25 (= Hadavas Philodemus 4). Day or night when I'm in Cydilla's lap, I know I'm running at the cliff's edge, I know I'm throwing the dice over my head. But what of it? She doesn't know the beginning of fear.

Early Imperial (1st c. CE)

5.32 (= Hadavas Argentarius 1). Melissa, you do everything a flower-loving bee does. You drip honey in my lips, and if you make demands, you hit with a stinger.

1) I feel like there's no way I could tell these guys apart. I'd like to eventually get to the point of having some sense of authorial style in epigram.

2) The exception is the early imperial Argentarius is a little easier than the rest; plus, the comparison to a bee reminds me of the Anacreontea (is there a bee one in the Anacreontea?)

3) Lots of bits here feel familiar, from Latin elegy and other love poetry. Stock characters (the jealous lover of 5.24, the demanding courtesan of 5.32), stock images (oaths carried on water in 5.8), and a bit like Martial there is often an attempt at a twist at the end (e.g. the coquette herself warns in 5.24).

4) Syntax is sometimes strained. I think the most striking is the hyperbaton at 5.24.2, where τοὺς follows its object: ζήλους τοὺς πρὶν ἐπισταμένη.