Callimachus (310/305 – 240 BCE) is a native of the Greek colony of Cyrene, Libya.

He is a noted poet, critic and scholar at the Library of Alexandria and enjoys the patronage of the Egyptian–Greek Pharaohs Ptolemy II Philadelphus and Ptolemy III Euergetes.

Although he is never made chief librarian, he is responsible for producing a bibliographic survey based upon the contents of the Library.

This, his Pinakes, 120 volumes long, provides the foundation for later work on the history of Greek literature.

As one of the earliest critic-poets, he typifies Hellenistic scholarship.