Of the author's life we know nothing. Our assignment of him to the third century is based merely on the fact that he quotes writers of the second, and is himself in turn cited by somewhat later authors.
LIFE OF SOCRATES
From the 'Lives and Sayings of the Philosophers'
Socrates was the son of Sophroniscus a sculptor and Phænarete a midwife [as Plato also states in the 'Theaetetus'], and an Athenian, of the deme Alopeke. He was believed to aid Euripides in composing his dramas. Hence Mnesimachus speaks thus:—
"This is Euripides's new play, the 'Phrygians':
And Socrates has furnished him the sticks."
And again:—
"Euripides, Socratically patched."
Callias also, in his 'Captives,' says:—
A—"Why art so solemn, putting on such airs?
B—Indeed I may; the cause is Socrates."