Platonius ( grc, Πλατώνιος, ''Platonios'') is the author of two writings on
Greek comedy, which have been preserved in excerpts: ''On the Characteristics of Comedies'' (Περὶ διαφορᾶς κωμῳδιῶν) and ''On the Characteristics of Styles'' (Περὶ διαφορᾶς χαρακτήρων), which today form part of the collection ''
Prolegomena de comoedia
''Prolegomena de comoedia'' ( eng, Introduction to Comedy) is a modern collective name for several short ancient Greek and Byzantine writings in Greek that are mostly found in the manuscripts of Aristophanes' comedies or taken as excerpts from ot ...
''.
The time of his life is unknown;
Georg Kaibel has speculated that Platonius lived in the 9th or 10th century. In his writings, Platonius talks about the differences between the
old
Old or OLD may refer to:
Places
*Old, Baranya, Hungary
*Old, Northamptonshire, England
*Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD)
*OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, Mai ...
,
middle and
new comedy. Among other things, he claims that the old Attic comedy gave way to the middle one due to the suppression of political freedoms in
Athens in the 4th century BC, but he does not name any poet of the middle comedy.
[ Simon Hornblower & Antony Spawforth, '' The Oxford Classical Dictionary'' (3rd ed.), 2003, s.v. "Platonius".]
References
Greek classical scholars
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