Aristophănes

, a celebrated comic poet of Athens, son of Philip of Rhodes. He wrote 54 comedies, of which only 11 are come down to us. He lived in the age of So crates, Demosthenes, and Euripi des, B.C. 434, and lashed the vices of his age with a masterly hand. The wit and excellence of his comedies are well known; but they abound sometimes too much with obscenity; and his attack upon the venerable character of So crates has been always censured, and with justice. As a reward for his mental greatne , the poet received a crown of olive, in a public a embly; but if he deserved praise, he merited blame for his licentiousne , which spared not even the gods, and was so offensive to his countrymen, that Alcibiades made a law at Athens, which forbade the comic writers from mimicking or representing on the stage any living character by name. Aris toph anes has been called the prince of ancient comedy, as Menander of the new. The play called Nubes is pointedly against So crates, and the philosopher is exposed to ridicule, and his precepts placed in a most ludicrous point of view by the introduction of one of his pupils in the characters of the piece. It is said that St.  Chrysostom used to keep the comedies of Aris toph anes under his pillow, on account of the brilliancy of the composition. Plutarch has made a comparison between the princes of the new and old comedy, which abounds with many anecdotes concerning these original characters. The best editions of the works of Aris toph anes are, Kuster’s, folio, Amsterdam, 1710, and the 12mo, Leiden, 1670, and that of Brunck, 4  vols. , 8vo, Str as bourg, 1783, which would still be more perfect did it contain the valuable scholia. Quintilian , bk. 10 , ch. 1 .— Paterculus , bk. 1 , ch. 16 .— Horace , bk. 1 , satire 4, li. 1 .――A grammarian of Byzantium, keeper of the library of Alexandria under Ptolemy Evergetes. He wrote a treatise on the harlots of Attica. Diogenes Laërtius , Plutarch & Epicurus .— Athenæus , bk. 9 .――A Greek historian of Bœotia, quoted by Plutarch , de Herodoti Malign it ate .――A writer on agriculture.