Book 2
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There have been three other men who bore the name of Archelaus: the topographer who described the countries traversed by Alexander; the author of a treatise on Natural Curiosities; and lastly a rhetorician who wrote a handbook on his art.
Chapter 5. SOCRATES (469-399 B.C.)
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Socrates was the son of Sophroniscus, a sculptor, and of Phaenarete, a midwife, as we read in the Theaetetus of Plato; he was a citizen of Athens and belonged to the deme Alopece. It was thought that he helped Euripides to make his plays; hence MnesimachusSo Cobet for vulgate Mnesilochus, retained by Meineke, C.G.F. ii. 371. writes: This new play of Euripides is The Phrygians; and Socrates provides the wood for frying.There is a pun in Φρύγες and φρύγανα (= firewood). And again he calls Euripides an engine riveted by Socrates. And Callias in The CaptivesMeineke, C.G.F. ii. 739.: A. Pray why so solemn, why this lofty air? B. I’ve every right; I’m helped by Socrates. AristophanesA mistake for Teleclides: see Meineke, Comicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, ii. p. 371 sq. Dindorf conjectured that τὰς σωκρατογόμφους belongs to the same passage of Teleclides’ Clouds and might well follow σοφάς. in The Clouds: ’Tis he composes for Euripides Those clever plays, much sound and little sense.
