Note 1371 — BOOK VII.835 MAN, HIS BIRTH, HIS ORGANIZATION, AND THE INVENTION OF THE ARTS. (continued 2)

Epicharmus was born in the fifth century B.C., in the island of Cos, but removed, probably at an early age, to Sicily, where he passed a considerable portion of his life. His original profession was that of a physician, but he appears to have devoted his attention principally to general science and literature, and is more especially remarkable as the inventor of regular comedy. A few fragments only of his dramas remain, but the titles of no less than forty are preserved. From a line in the Prologue to the Menæchmi of Plautus, where it is said that the plot of the play, “non Atticissat verum Sicilicissat” “is not Attic, but Sicilian;” it has been conjectured, that Plautus took the plot of the piece from Epicharmus.