And not one crock to keep shall he be able.”

Plato Comicus (as distinguished from the philosopher), who carried on a poetic contest with Aristophanes, ranks among the best of the poets of the Old Comedy, but only a few fragments of his work remain.

Here are two of them:

“Henceforth no four-legged creature should be slain,

Except the pig; of this the reason’s plain.

Its use—unless for food—man vainly seeks;

It only gives him bristles, dirt, and squeaks.”

“We’re swamped with ‘public men’; for one scamp dead,

Two louder talkers, greater scamps, instead

Spring up like Hydra’s heads: the more’s the pity