Introduction

17

copies survived in libraries.14 Anaxandrides’ work was being excerpted for use
in anthologies at least by the second century BC (cf. on fr. 71); such anthologies
were undoubtedly the source for the relatively large number of fragments
preserved by Stobaeus, which may indicate that Anaxandrides had an aptitude
for the well-turned platitude. He is also quoted extensively by Athenaeus, as
well as by a number of grammarians, lexicographers, and the like, although
all these likely also drew on excerpts and lacked first-hand familiarity with
complete texts of the comedies. Despite Anaxandrides’ apparent fame and
success in his own day, as well as his influence on the development of the
comic genre, his plays seem to have been little read or performed much past
the end of the fourth century, and it seem unlikely that many, if any at all,
could still be found complete after the Hellenistic period.

3. Transmission and Reception
The fragments of Anaxandrides survive in a surprisingly wide variety of
sources, sixteen in all,15 including the works of his contemporary Aristotle,
who quotes him five times. In addition, nine fragments survive in whole or in
part in multiple sources (frr. 3; 10; 12; 14; 15; 51; 58; 71; 75);16 in at least half
of these instances, however, one source is probably dependent on the other
or there is a common source, so that this is not a question of independent
survival. The variety of sources is roughly equivalent to that for the leading
poets of Middle Comedy.
Aristotle quotes Anaxandrides in his Rhetoric (frr. 10; 13; 65; 67) and
Nicomachean Ethics (fr. 66); as might be expected from a contemporary, he
refers to the fragments in a manner that assumes his readers’ familiarity with
them (cf. especially frr. 10; 13). Significantly, the only other comic poets quoted

14 If at test. 5.10 [ — σ]ώιωι (i. e. a copy survived in the Alexandrian library; cf. IGUR
215.7; 216.9) is read, this may suggest that most of his plays had already been lost
by the Roman period.
15 This figure does not include Eustathius, demonstrably dependent on Athenaeus,
nor Trypho, apparently quoted by Athenaeus as quoting Anaxandrides, nor lexi-
cographers whose entries record words without attribution but known from other
sources to have been used by Anaxandrides.
16 These do not include fragments known from the sources excluded in the previous
note.