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Straton of Sardis (aka Strato) was a Greek-writing poet from the Lydian city of Sardis. He probably lived during the time of Hadrian. Straton put together an anthology of erotic epigrams called Mousa Paidikh ('The Boyish Muse'). Around 900 CE, a Byzantine scholar named Kephalas (Cephalas) compiled pieces of several anthologies including 'The Boyish Muse' to make a comprehensive collection of Greek epigrams. The Cephalas book was revised, divided into specialized anthologies, adapted for school use, and generally much copied. In 1301 CE, a scholar named Planoudes put together an expurgated version of the Cephalan book which became very popular in Greece. When the Ottoman Empire conquered the remains of the Byzantine empire, many Greek scholars took versions of the Planoudes book with them into exile in Italy. The Greeks became teachers to Italian scholars and eventually printed an edition of the Planudean book, the Florilegium Diversorum Epigrammatum, in Florence in 1494.
Most of what we know of Straton's work comes from the Palatine manuscript, a version of the Cephalan anthology copied around 980 CE. This manuscript was discovered in the library of the Counts Palatine in Heidelberg in 1606 or 1607. There is no clear record of how it got there, but a visiting Italian scholar probably left it. This version of the anthology was finally published from 1794 to 1814 as Anthologia Graeca, with an appendix of poems included in the Planudean anthology but not found in the Palatine manuscript. The remains of 'The Boyish Muse' became Book 12 in this Greek Anthology edition.
Because of its taboo subject-matter, Straton's work was generally left untranslated, or translated only into Latin, or translated only in very private editions, until the mid 20th century.
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