Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/188

 170 THE COMEDIANS WHO PEECEDED OR WERE Crates is said to have been originally an actor in the plays of Cratinus^; he could not, however, have followed this profession very long, for we learn from Eusebius that he was well known as a comedian in 450 B.C., which was not long after Cratinus, if he could be called in any sense the successor of Magnes, began to exhibit. He was the first comedian at Athens who departed from the satyrical form of Comedy, and formed his plots from general stories ^ The names of twenty-six of his Comedies are known^ Aristophanes speaks in the highest terms of his wit and ingenuity ''. His brother Epilycus was an epic poet and comedian ^ Pherecrates is mentioned as an imitator or rival of Crates, whose actor he is said to have been ; and an admirable emendation of the corrupt passage, which is our chief account of him, assigns his first victory to the archonship of Theodorus, B.C. 438^. Al- though the same authority says that he abstained from personal vituperation*^, the fragments of his plays show that he attacked Alcibiades, the tragic poet Melanthius, Polytion, and others. He was distinguished by the elegance of his style, and is called 'ATTt/cwTaro?^. Perhaps his name is most familiar to scholars as the inventor of the Pherecratean metre, which he calls a contracted anapaestic verse ^, and which he probably formed by omitting the first two times in the paroemiac^^. We have the names of between 15 and 20 of his Comedies. ^ Schol. Aristoph. Equit. (p. 567, Dindorf). 2 Tuji' he 'Adrjuyatv Kpdrrjs rrpuros rjp^ev dcp^/jLevos T^s lafi^iKrjs I5^as, KadoXov Troietv yovs rj /jl66ovs. Aristot. Poet. IV, 7. '^ Fabricius, ii. p. 429, Harles. ^ Aristoph. Fqioit. 537: ''Airb Kpafx^ordrov aropiaTos /wdrrwj' daTeioTdras iwcvolas. ^ Suid. KpaTTji. 6 Anon, de Com. p. xxix. : ^epeKparrfs 'AdrjvoLos viKa iirl Oiarpov (1. iirl Qeodujpov Dobree) yevopLCvos 6 Se (om, 6 Dobr.) viroKptTTjS e^rjXuKe KpdTTjra. '^ Tov p.kv Xotdopeiu d-TriaTT]. ^ Athen, VI. p. 268 E; Suid. s. v. 'Adrjvala; Phrynichus Sophist, ap. Steph. Byz. s. V. 'Kdrivai, p. 34, Meineke. 9 Ap. HephcBst. X. 5 ; xv. 15 ; Schol. Ar. Nub. 564 : ap8pes TTpSacrx^Te top vovv e^€vprjp.aTL Kaiv(^ avp.7rTiJKrois dvairaiaTois. ^•^ As the parcemiac is itself catalectic, the omission of a syllable at the beginning makes it avpLTrrvKTOs, i. e. "folded in at both ends."
 * 0s aTTo afXLKpas Sairdvrjs v/j.as dpLaTi^ojv diriireiXTrev