Baton of Athens

Baton (Ancient Greek: Βάτων) was an Athenian comic poet of the New Comedy, who flourished about 280 BCE.

We have fragments of the following comedies by him:

  • The Aetolian(s) (Αἰτωλός or Αιτωλοί)
  • The Euergetes (Ευεργέται)
  • Audrophonos (Αυδροφόνος)
  • Deceiving Together (Συνεξαπατῶν)

His plays appear to have been chiefly designed to ridicule the philosophers of the day.

His name is incorrectly written in some passages of the ancient authors, variously as "Battos" (Βάττος), "Batton" (Βάττων), or "Bathon" (Βάθων).[1][2][3][4][5][6]

References

  1. ^ Plutarch, de Am. et Adul. p. 55
  2. ^ Suda, s.v. Βάτων
  3. ^ Eudokia Makrembolitissa, Collection p. 93
  4. ^ Photios I of Constantinople, Bibliotheca 167
  5. ^ Stobaeus, Florilegium 98.18
  6. ^ Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 14.662c., iv. p. 163b., vii. p. 279c., xv. p. 678f

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainSmith, Philip (1870). "Baton". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 1. p. 474.