Thousands of examples have been found on the walls of Pompeii including lines like "Gaius Pumidius
Diphilus was here" and "Marcus loves Spendusa".
6), and the reader is introduced to representatives from various philosophical schools: a pair of Stoics (Zenothemis and
Diphilus) a Peripatetic (Cleodemus), an Epicurean (Hermon), and a Platonist (Ion).
Philippe Legrand (1902, 371) proposed that the oddity was due to contamination, because Plautus assigned lines to Myrrhina that
Diphilus had assigned to a male character in his Kleroumenoi, the professed Greek source of Plautus's play (Cas.
by the Roman
Diphilus of Siphnos for his recipe of scallops with pepper.
Diphilus. Sister, Dula swears she heard you cry two rooms off.
14.8), and we also have a fragment from
Diphilus' play The Painter that represents a male cook taking a young man to an Adonis feast hosted by a courtesan (ap.
The evidence for off-stage action, however, can only be found in Terence's Latin text, and we have to allow for the possibility that Terence has obscured what was clearer in Menander's Adelphoi B', or even altered the original action.(18) In this play Terence has on his own admission (6-11) introduced a scene from another Greek play, the Synapothneskontes of
Diphilus; how far that has affected the original action of Menander's play is a matter for discussion.
On Casina as an adaptation from a Greek original by
Diphilus see Prolog.
Diphilus lived and worked at Athens and was an elder contemporary of the dramatist Menander.
In Machon (258-322 Gow = Athenaeus 13.610d),
Diphilus goes to Gnathea's place to celebrate the Aphrodisia, bringing with him all the apparatus for the party, including perfume, garlands, snacks, a kid goat, ribbons, fish, a cook, and a piper for later ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]).
At this point it is appropriate to note that investigations of the Casina usually address the issue of its relation to
Diphilus' Kleroumenoi, which Plautus says is his model (32-4).(21) Could these aromatic names have originated in
Diphilus' play?
Syncellus 340).(10) Of course, Hipponax' actual date was at least 150 years later, as is well documented both by internal and by external evidence.(11) The synchronism with Archilochus may have been based on the comedy of
Diphilus portraying Hipponax and Archilochus as rival lovers competing for the favor of Sappho (see Athenaeus 13.599d).(12) Or it may have been just another case of synchronizing to the same date poets whose genre and style seemed comparable.