9

Introduction
1. Name and Identity
The comic poet Timocles (PAA 887000= LGPNII. Τιμοκλής Αθηναίος n. 4.= PA
13726 = RE Τιμοκλής n. 3) was an Athenian (cf. test. 1,3). Athenaeus (9.407d) gives
a confusing piece of information, which would mean that the comedian Timocles
was also a tragic poet (cf. test. 2 and on fr. 14), and indeed a tragic poet Timocles is
attested (PAA 887010), who is credited with a victory in the Dionysia in 340 BC1.
A further indication might be the title Ikarioi Satyroi, which at first sight denotes
a satyr play. But it is better to assume that Athenaeus has simply made a mistake,
and is confusing the tragedian Timocles with the comedian.2 Moreover, Suda’s
attestation that there were two comic poets by the name Timocles is obviously
wrong (cf. on test. I).3
A certain Timocles is mentioned in Alex. fr. 113 in a context which suggests
that he was a notorious contemporary toper. The possibility that he was the comic
poet cannot be excluded, and Alexis may actually have mentioned Timocles again
in another context, the description of Chaerephilus’ sons as σκόμβροι (“common
mackerels”) in fr. 77.4 If the “drunkard Timocles” was the comic poet,5 then Alexis’
mention recalls to mind similar descriptions of Cratinus by Aristophanes in Eq.
531-5. On the other hand, given that the name is common in the fourth century
(and in Alexis’ lifetime at least 20 possible candidates are attested, cf. PAA s. v. [vol.
XVI, pp. 381-9]) and that there is no other evidence on the supposed alcoholism
of the comic Timocles, such an identification is impossible to ascertain.6

2. Chronology and Career
Timocles’ activity dates to the second half of the fourth century. In the list of
victors at the Lenaea, he appears twelve places after Alexis, two places before

1 He might also be the victorious tragic poet at the City Dionysia in 330/29 BC; cf.
Millis-Olson 2012, 2320 col. II. 19 (p. 68).
2 Cf. test. 2, and on Ikarioi Satyroi, esp. the chapter “The genre debate”. For the dispute
concerning a supposed similar double activity of Autocrates cf. Orth 2014, 132.
3 Probably a misrepresentation of the two namesake poets - the tragedian and the co-
median.
4 Concerning the authorship of the wording οΰς και Τιμοκλής I ίδών έπι τών ϊππων δύο
σκόμβρους έφη / έν τοϊς σατύροις είναι (Alex. fr. 77), cf. on Timocl. fr. 15.
5 Bevilacqua 1939, 27 favors this identification, on the grounds that this Timocles may
have been a well-known person in Athens, in order to work as a climax in that context.
6 Cf. Meineke I (1839) 389; Bain 1977, 104, n. 3; Arnott 1996, 298, and below “Timocles
and other poets”.