Epic harm us

, a poet and Pythagorean philosopher of Sicily, who introduced comedy at Syracuse, in the reign of Hiero. His compositions were imitated by Plautus. He wrote some treatises upon philosophy and medicine, and observed that the gods sold all their kindne es for toil and labour. According to Aristotle and Pliny, he added the two letters χ and θ to the Greek alphabet. He flourished about 440 years before Christ, and died in the 90th year of his age. Horace , bk. 2 , ltr. 1 , li. 58 .— Diogenes Laërtius , bks. 3 & 8.— Cicero , Letters to Atticus , bk. 1 , ltr. 19 .