[337] I have reserved the detailed proof of this fact, and the similar one concerning Menander, for another place, in order that the sequence of the argument may not be disturbed. Vide Excursus. [This Excursus does not appear to have been written.]
[338] It is hard to speak so positively of Philemon if, as is probable, he was merely the imitator and rival of Menander in this respect; but, of course, if it be granted that his romantic plays are subsequent to Menander’s introduction of the subject, it is a matter of indifference for the present argument whether he afterwards reverted to the older style or not.
[339] [Supra, [p. 107 seqq.]]
[340] The Scholiast here, and others, go so far as to assert that Theocritus was a pupil of Asclepiades as well as of Philetas.
[341] Φιλητᾶς ... ὢν ἐπί τε Φιλίππου καὶ Ἀλεξάνδρου. Suidas s.v.
[342] Cp. Anth. Pal. xii. 46.—The fact that Asclepiades was tired of life at twenty-one is, of course, no proof that he died early. Many people, especially poets, who were very anxious for death in their youth, have developed a wonderfully tenacious hold upon life as they grew older.
[343] Cp. Anth. Pal. ix. 63; supra, [p. 113].
[344] The fact that Menander called one of his plays Samia, a title which had not been used since the time of Anaxandrides, is one of those interesting coincidences that prove nothing at all.
[345] Ὑσμίνῃ παρθένῳ τῇ θυγατρὶ Σωσθένης οἰνοχοεῖν ἐγκελεύεται· ἡ δὲ ἀνεζώσατο τόν χιτῶνα, ἐγύμνωσε τὼ χεῖρε μέχρις ἀγκῶνος κ.τ.λ. Eumath. i. 8.
[346] ἔπιε μὲν οὖν ὁ Σωσθένης· οὐκ ἔπειθε γάρ με αὐτοῦ προπιεῖν. εἶτα καὶ ἡ Πανθία (ἡ τῆς Ὑσμίνης μήτηρ) συνέπιεν· ἐμὲ δὲ τρίτον εἶχεν ἡ πόσις. id. ibid.