168 THE COMEDIANS WHO PRECEDED OR WERE that they were gnomic like those of Epicharmus. The same appears to have been the character of the Comedies of his country- man and contemporary Magnes, from whom Aristophanes bor- rowed the titles of two of his plays, the Bdrpaxoc and "Opvide^, and perhaps the form of all of them. Magnes gained many victories in his younger days : but when he was old, says Aristo- phanes he was cast aside, merely because the edge of his satire was blunted. Of EcPHANTlDES we know little more than that for some doubtful reason he was called KaTri^/o?^, and that he was one of the oldest and most celebrated of the early comedians. We have the title of only one of his plays, the ^drvpoi^. The Ilvpavvo<^, men- tioned as a play of 'E/^^az^?;?, has been assigned to him ; but the true reading is probably 'AvTc^dvr]<;^. Cratinus, the son of Callimedes, was born at Athens, B.C. 519^. It is stated that he succeeded Magnes ; he must, therefore, have commenced his dramatic career late in life®. We do not know the date of any of his Comedies earlier than the 'Ap^tXo^j^ot : and since allusion was made in that Comedy to the death of Cimon (B.C. 449), it must have been represented after that event '^. By a decree prohibiting Comedy, which was passed in the year 440 B.C., and was not repealed till the year 436 B.C., he was prevented from producing any Comedies or plays in that interval^. After the repeal of this decree in 436 B.C. Cratinus gained three comic vic- tories. In 425 B.C. he was second with the Xetfia^ojULevoty Aristo- phanes being first with the 'A'^apvfj<^, and Eupolis third with the 'NovfiTjvlat^. In 424 B.C. he gained the second prize with the comoedias Greece scripserunt, et easdem sententias versibus in scena pronuntiaverunt, Eucrates, Chionides, Aristophanes," &c. Vitruv. Pi-aef. in lib. vi. 1 Equit. 520: TovTo jxh et'Scbs airaOe 'M.d'YvrjS a/xa rais TroXtats Karioijaais,
- "0s rrKeXara %o/3cDi' tQv avrnrdXcov vLktjs ^aTTjcre Tpbiraia,
ndcras 6' vjjuv <pwvas ids, Kal xpdWcou, Kal irrepvyi^cov, Kal Xvdi^oju, Kal ^Tjvi^ccu, Kal ^airrd/xevos ^arpaxdoLS, OvK i^rjpKeaev' dXXd TekevTdv iirl yripcjs, ou yap e(j) rj^y]^, 'E^e^Xrjdr] vpea^uTrjs dSv, 8tl toO aKdnrreiu air eei(j)d'i). 518. 2 Meineke, Hist. Crlt. Corn. I. p. 36. ^ Athen. I. p. 96 C. ^ Meineke, I.e. p. 37. ^ He died in 422 B. c, at the age of ninety-seven. Lucian, Macrob. c. xxv. ^ See Clinton, F. H. 11. p. 49. See Plutarch, Cimon, c. x. ^ Schol. Aristoph. Acliai-n, 67. ^ Argum. Acharn.
