Note 52 — Chapter I · DRAMATIC CONTESTS AT ATHENS

Cp. Diog. Laërt. iii. 56. Θρασύλλος δέ φησι καὶ κατὰ τὴν τραγικὴν τετραλογίαν ἐκδοῦναι αὐτὸν (sc. τὸν Πλάτωνα) τοὺς διαλόγους, οἷον ἐκεῖνοι τέτρασι δράμασιν ἠγωνίζοντο, Διονυσίοις, Ληναίοις, Παναθηναίοις, Χύτροις, ὧν τὸ τέταρτον ἦν σατυρικόν· τὰ δὲ τέτταρα δράματα ἐκαλεῖτο τετραλογία. Thrasyllus was a philosopher of the time of Tiberius. The passage οἷον ... τετραλογία is probably an explanatory interpolation by Diogenes himself. The statement that the four plays of a tetralogy were performed at four different festivals is absurd in itself, and abundantly disproved by inscriptions and other evidence (e.g. Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 67).