SUIDAS
ON THE CHANGE ASCRIBED TO SOPHOCLES
IN REGARD TO TRILOGIES[1].
The passage of Suidas which I have taken as my subject follows his notice of two other modifications which Sophocles had introduced into the form of Attic Tragedy,—the increase in the number of the actors from two to three; and the increase in the number of the Chorus from twelve to fifteen. Then Suidas continues, "And he himself began the practice of play contending against play, and not tetralogy"—against tetralogy[2] The grammatical construction claims a brief comment. I take the accusatives δρᾶμα and τετραλογίαν as subjects to the infinitive ἀγωνίζεσθαι. Compare Arist. Poetics, ch. 7, εἰ γὰρ ἔδει ἑκατὸν τραγῳδίας ἀγωνίζεσθαι, πρὸς κλέψυδραν ἂν ἠγωνίζοντο: "for if it had been necessary that a hundred tragedies should compete, they would have competed under a limit of time for each." The alternative is to take δρᾶμα and τετραλογίαν
