A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

CRATINUS.
was made prohibiting the comic poets from holding
a living person up to ridicule by bringing him on
the stage by name (44 ljep a O7 ro I KcoJ)Apevi
dovoaeri, Schol. Arist. Acharn. 67; Meineke,
Hist. Crit. p. 40). This law remained in force for
the two following years, and was annulled in the
archonship of Euthymenes. (n. c. 437- 136.)
Another restriction, which probably belongs to
about the same time, was the law that no Areopagite should write comedies. (Plut. Bell. an Pac.
praesf. Atsh. p. 348, c.) 'From B. c. 436 the old
comedy flourished in its highest vigour, till a
s~ries of attacks was made upon it by a certain
Syracosius, who is suspected, with great probability, of having been suborned by Alcibiades.
This Syracosius carried a law, p 7 c KcwCVcs1 aOaI
oVdroa0-Ti rWva, probably about B. c. 416-415,
which did not, however, remain in force long.
(Schol. Arist. Av. 1297.) A similar law is said
to have been carried by Antimachus, but this is
perhaps a mistake. (Schol. Arist. Aclarsn. 1149;
Meineke, p. 41.) That the brief aristocratical
revolution of 411 B. c. affected the liberty of
comedy can hardly be doubted, though we have
no express testimony. If it declined then, we
have clear evidence of its revival with the restoration of democracy in the Frogs of Aristophanes and the Cleophon of Plato. (B. c. 405.)
It cannot be doubted that, during the rule of the
thirty tyrants, the liberty of comedy was restrained, not only by the loss of political liberty, but by
the exhaustion resulting from the war, in consequence of which the choruses could not be maintained with their ancient splendour. We even find
a play of Cratinus without Chorus or Parabasis,
namely, the 'O-vo'ors, but this was during the
85th Olympiad, when the above-mentioned law was
in force. The old comedy, having thus declined,
was at length brought to an end by the attacks of
the dithyrambic poet Cinesias, and of Agyrrhius,
and was succeeded by the Middle Comedy (about
B.c. 393-392; Meineke, pp. 42, 43).
Besides what Cratinus did to give a new character and power to comedy, he is said to have
made changes in its outward form, so as to bring
it into better order, especially by fixing the number of actors, which had before been indefinite, at
three. (Anon. de Com. p. xxxii.) On the other
hand, however, Aristotle says, that no one knew
who made this and other such changes. (PoUi. v.
4.)
The character of Cratinus as a poet rests upon the
testimonies of the ancient writers, as we have no
complete play of his extant. These testimonies are
most decided in placing him in the very first rank
of comic poets. By one writer he is compared to
Aeschylus. (Anon. de Comn. p. xxix.) There is a
fragment of his own, which evidently is no vain
boast, but expresses the estimation in which he
was held by his contemporaries. (Schol. Arist.
Equit. 526.) Amongst several allusions to him
in Aristophanes, the most remarkable is the passage in the Knights referred to above, where he
likens Cratinus to a rapid torrent, carrying everything before it, and says that for his many victories he deserved to drink in the Prytaneium, and
to sit anointed as a spectator of the Dionysia.
But, after all, his highest praise is in the fact, that
he appeared at the Dionysia of the following year,
"not as a spectator, but as a competitor, and carried
off the prize above Aristophanes himself. His

CRATINUS. 887
style seems to have been somewhat grandiloquent,
and full of tropes, and altogether of a lyric cast.
-He was very bold in inventing new words, and
in changing the meaning of old ones. His choruses especially were greatly admired, and were
for a time the favourite songs at banquets. (Aristophanes, 1. c.) It was perhaps on account of the
dithyrambic character of his poetry that he was
likened to Aeschylus, and it was no doubt for the
same reason that Aristophanes called him ravpo(cdiyov (Ran. 357; comp. Etym. Mag. p. 747, 50;
Apollon. Lex. Hom. p. 156, 20.) His metres
seem to have partaken of the same lofty character.
He sometimes used the epic verse. The " Cratinean metre" of the grammarians, however, was
in use before his time. [TOLYNUS.] In the invention of his plots he was most ingenious and
felicitous, but his impetuous and exuberant fancy
was apt to derange them in the progress of the
play. (Platonius, p. xxvii.)
Among the poets who imitated him more or less
the ancient writers enumerate Eupolis, Aristophanes, Crates, Telecleides, Strattis, and others.
The only poets whom he himself is known to have
imitated are Homer and Archilochus. (Platonius,
1. c.; Bergk, p. 156.) His most formidable rival
was Aristophanes. (See, besides numerous passages of Aristophanes and the Scholia on him,
Schol. Plat. p. 330.) Among his enemies Aristophanes mentions ol 7rept Kahheia (L. c.). What
Callias he means is doubtful, but it is most natural
to suppose that it is Callias the son of Hipponicus.
There is much confusion among the ancient
writers in quoting from his dramas. Meineke
has shewn that the following plays are wrongly
attributed to him:-T'aicos, Opcdrwv, "Hpwes,
'Ifal36,,Kp'o-o-a, P'i/e-xara, 'AXAorpioyvw'ov's.
These being deducted, there still remain thirty
titles, some of which, however, certainly belong to
the younger Cratinus. After all deductions, there
remain twenty-four titles, namely, 'ApXiAoXoi,
Bovico'or, AAlXaUSes, AtaarecaAhiu, ApaTreriLes,
'EgTsrtrpcdievot or 'Iaoti, Eve7'sat, Op3rrat, KAeoovAuvat, Adcirwes, MaOeuaco, Ncteoses, Nodxot,
'Ovro-As, lavoTrT'tar, Ivhacua, IhAoDrot, ITUmiYm,
Sa'rvpot, XepieptPo, Tpowcivtos, Xepadegrcotr, Xeipwvcs,v'tpai. The difference between this list and
the statement of the grammarians, who give to
Cratinus only twenty-one plays, may be reconciled
on the supposition that some of these plays had
been lost when the grammarians wrote, as, for
example, the 'dprvpoi and Xe-qtao6'eVoL, which are
mentioned only in the Didascalia of the Knights
and Acharnians.
The following are the plays of Cratinus, the
date of which is known with certainty:B. C.
About 448. 'Apxy'AoXoi.
In 425. Xesao6'evotM, 2nd prize. Aristophanes
was first, with the Acharnians.
424. c2drvpot, 2nd prize. Aristophanes was
first, with the Kni:gts.
423. nvrivr, 1st prize.
2nd. Ameipsias, Kivvos.
3rd. Aristoph. Neip'eat.
The chief ancient commentators on Cratinus
were Asclepiades, Didymus, Callistratus, Euphronius, Symmachus, Aristarchus, and the Scholiasts.
(Meineke, Frag. Corn. Graec. i. pp. 43-58, ii.
pp. 13-232.; Bergk, Coumment. de Reliq. Comn. Ait.