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9. The Know-it-All Who Starved to Death While Correcting Others
Long before grammar Nazis, there was Philitas of Cos (circa 340 – circa 285 BC). Ancient sources describe him as an annoying and overly pedantic busybody, who could not stop himself from constantly correcting others. A poet and scholar who tutored Egypt’s King Ptolemy II, Philitas played a key role in popularizing the Hellenistic school of poetry, which flourished in Alexandria. Later poets, such as the Roman Ovid, refer to him as their model.
According to ancient sources, he got so caught up in correcting others’ mistakes, investigating false arguments and poor word choices, that he starved to death while researching and writing an essay about somebody’s erroneous word usage. An inscription in front of his tomb read: “Stranger, Philitas is my name, I lie – Slain by fallacious arguments, and cares – Protracted from evening through the night“.