Its anonymous author calls himself Bion's heir and an "Ausonian" (= Italian), which may mean that Bion traveled to Italy at some point, perhaps for patronage in Rome (as Greek poets were beginning to do in his lifetime). It may, however, mean only that the author considered himself Bion's poetic heir. The poem also asserts that Bion was poisoned, which may or may not be a poetic metaphor. One ancient text gives his place of origin as "a little place called Phlossa", which is otherwise unknown; it was presumably a district under the administration of Smyrna, perhaps one of the villages out of which Smyrna was reconstituted during the Hellenistic period. The appellation "Bion of Phlossa", under which he is sometimes known (for example, by the Library of Congress), is unlikely to have been used in antiquity: outside of Smyrna itself he would have been known as Bion of Smyrna. Recent editions are:  Bion and Moschus have been edited separately by      On the date of Bion: