Crates

• I A Theban philosopher, Ap. Apol. p. 26 Bip.; id. Flor. p. 126 sq.—
• II Crates Mallotes, a grammarian, Suet. Gram. 2; Varr. L. L. 8, § 64.—
• III Crates, an Academic philosopher of Athens, Cic. Ac. 1, 9, 34.

(Κράτης), of Athens, was the son of Antigenes of the Thriasian demus, the pupil and friend of Polemo, and his successor in the chair of the Academy, perhaps about B. C. 270. The intimate friendship of Crates and Polemo was celebrated in antiquity, and Diogenes Laertius has preserved an epigram of the poet Antagoras, according to which the two friends were united after death in one tomb. The most distinguished of the pupils of Crates were the philosopher Arcesilaüs, Theodorus, the founder of a sect called after him, and Bion Borysthenites. The writings of Crates are lost. Diogenes Laertius says, that they were on philosophical subjects, on comedy, and also orations ; but the latter were probably written by Crates of Tralles. [Crates of Tralles.] (D. L. 4.21-23.) [A.S]

(Κράτης), of Athens, a comic poet, of the old comedy, was a younger contemporary of Cratinus, in whose plays he was the principal actor before he betook himself to writing comedies. (D. L. 4.23; Aristoph. Kn. 536_540, and Schol.; Anon. de Com. p. xxix.) He began to flourish in Ol. 82. 4, B. C. 449, 448 (Euseb. Chron.), and is spoken of by Aristophanes in such a way as to imply that he was dead before the Knights was acted, Ol. 88. 4, B. C. 424. With respect to the character of his dramas, there is a passage in Aristotle (Aristot. Poet. 5) which has been misunderstood, but which seems simply to mean, that, instead of making his comedies vehicles of personal abuse, he chose such subjects as admitted of a more general mode of depicting character. This is confirmed by the titles and fragments of his plays and by the testimony of the Anonymous writer on Comedy respecting his imitator, Pherecrates (p. xxix). His great excellence is attested by Aristophanes, though in a somewhat ironical tone (l.c.; comp. Ath. iii. p. 117c.), and by the fragments of his plays. He excelled chiefly in mirth and fun (Aristoph. l.c.; Anon. de Com. l.c.), which he carried so far as to bring drunken persons on the stage, a thing which Epicharmus had done, but which no Attic comedian had ventured on before. (Ath. x. p. 429a.) His example was followed by Aristophanes and by later comedians ; and with the poets of the new comedy it became a very common practice. (Dion Chrysost. Orat. 32, p. 391b.) Like the other great comic poets, he was made to feel strongly both the favour and the inconstancy of the people. (Aristoph. l.c.) The Scholiast on this passage says, that Crates used to bribe the spectators,--a charge which Meineke thinks may have been taken from some comic poet who was an enemy to Crates. There is much confusion among the ancient writers about the number and titles of his plays. Suidas has made two comic poets of the name, but there can be little doubt that he is wrong. Other grammarians assign to him seven and eight comedies respectively. (Anon. de Com. pp. xxix, xxxiv.) The result of Meineke's analysis of the statements of the ancient writers is, that fourteen plays are ascribed to Crates, namely, Γείτονες, Διόνυσος, Ἥρωες, Θηρία, Θησαυρός, Λάμια, Μέτοικοι, Ὄρνιθες, Παιδιαί, Πεδῆται, Ῥήτορες, Σάμιοι, Τόλμαι , Φιλάργυρος, of which the following are suspicious, Διόνυσος, Θησαυρός, Μέτοικοι, Ὄρνιθες, Πεδῆται, Φιλάργυρος, thus leaving eight, the number mentioned by the Anonymous writer on Comedy, namely, Γείτονες, Ἤρωες, Θηρία, Λάμια, Παιδιαί, Ῥήτορες, Σάμιοι, Τόλμαι. Of these eight plays fragments are still extant. There are also seventeen fragments, which cannot be assigned to their proper plays. The language of Crates is pure, elegant, and simple, with very few peculiar words and constructions. He uses a very rare metrical peculiarity, namely, a spondaic ending to the anapaestic tetrameter. (Poll. 6.53; Athen. 3.119c.; Meineke, Frag. Com. Graec. i. pp. 58-66, ii. pp. 231-251; Bergk, Comment. de Reliq. Comm. Att. Antiq. pp. 266-283.) [P.S]

(Κράτης), of Mallus in Cilicia, the son of Timocrates, is said by Suidas (s. v.) to have been a Stoic philosopher, but is far better known as one of the most distinguished of the ancient Greek grammarians. He lived in the reign of Ptolemy Philometor, and was contemporary with Aristarchus, in rivalry with whom he supported the fame of the Pergamene school of grammar against the Alexandrian, and the system of anomaly (ἀνωμαλία) against that of analogy (ἀναλογία). He is said by Varro to have derived his grammatical system from a certain Chrysippus, who left six books περὶ τῆς ἀνωμαλίας. He was born at Mallus in Cilicia, and was brought up at Tarsus, whence he removed to Pergamus, and there lived under the patronage of Eumenes II. and Attalus II. He was the founder of the Pergamene school of grammar, and seems to have been at one time the chief librarian. About the year 157 B. C., shortly after the death of Ennius, Crates was sent by Attalus as an ambassador to Rome, where he introduced for the first time the study of grammar. The results of his visit lasted a long time, as may be observed especially in the writings of Varro. (Sueton. de Illustr. Grammat. 2.) An accident, by which he broke a leg, gave him the leisure, which his official duties might otherwise have interrupted, for holding frequent grammatical lectures (ἀκροάσεις). We know nothing further of the life of Crates.

In the grammatical system of Crates a strong distinction was made between criticism and grammar, the latter of which sciences he regarded as quite subordinate to the former. The office of the critic, according to Crates, was to investigate everything which could throw light upon literature, either from within or from without; that of the grammarian was only to apply the rules of language to clear up the meaning of particular passages, and to settle the text, the prosody, the accentuation, and so forth, of the ancient writers. From this part of his system, Crates derived the surname of Κοιτικός. This title is derived by some from the fact that, like Aristarchus, Crates gave the greatest attention to the Homeric poems, from his labours upon which he was also surnamed Ὁμηρικός. His chief work is entitled Διόρθωσις Ἰλιάδος καὶ Ὀδυσσείας, in nine books, by which we are probably to understand, not a recension of the Homeric poems, dividing them into nine books, but that the commentary of Crates itself was divided into nine books.

The few fragments of this commentary, which are preserved by the Scholiasts and other ancient writers, have led Wolf to express a very unfavourable opinion of Crates. As to his emendations, it must be admitted that he was far inferior to Aristarchus in judgment, but it is equally certain that he was most ingenious in conjectural emendations. Several of his readings are to this day preferred by the best scholars to those of Aristarchus. As for his excursions into all the scientific and historical questions for which Homer furnishes an occasion, it was the direct consequence of his opinion of the critic's office, that he should undertake them, nor do the results of his inquiries quite deserve the contempt with which Wolf treats them. Among the ancients themselves he enjoyed a reputation little, if at all, inferior to that of Aristarchus. The school which he founded at Pergamus flourished a considerable time, and was the subject of a work by Ptolemy of Ascalon, entitled περὶ τῆς Κρατητείου αἱρέσεως. To this school Wolf refers the catalogues of ancient writers which are mentioned by Dionysius of Halicarnassus (ἐν τοῖς Περγαμηνοῖς πίναξι, ii. p. 118, 5, ed. Sylburg.), who also mentions the school by the name of τοὺς ἐκ Περγάμου γραμματικούς (p. 112, 27). They are also called Κρατήτειοι. Among the catalogues mentioned by Dionysius there can be no doubt that we ought to include the lists of titles (ἀναγραφαί) of dramas, which Athenaeus (viii. p. 336c.) states to have been composed by the Pergamenes.

Besides his work on Homer, Crates wrote commentaries on the Theogony of Hesiod, on Euripides, on Aristophanes, and probably on other ancient authors, a work on the Attic dialect (περὶ Ἀττικῆς διαλέκτου), and works on geography, natural history, and agriculture, of all which only a few fragments exist. Some scholars, however, think, that the Crates of Pergamus, whose work on the wonders of various countries is quoted by Pliny (Plin. Nat. 7.2) and Aelian (Ael. NA 17.9), was a different person. The fragments of his works are collected by C. F. Wegener (De Aula Attalica Litt. Artiumque Fautrice, Havn. 1836, 8vo.) There is also one epigram by him in the Greek Anthology (2.3, Brunck and Jacobs) upon Choerilus. This epigram is assigned to Crates on the authority of its title, Κράτητος γραμματικοῦ. But Diogenes Laertius mentions an epigrammatic poet of the name, as distinct from the grammarian.

(Suidas, s. vv. Κράτης, Ἀρίσταρχος D. L. 4.23; Strabo, pp. 3, 4, 30, 157, 439, 609, 676, &c.; Athen. 11.497f.; Varro, de L. L. 8.64, 68, 9.1; Sext. Empir. ad v. Math. 1.3.79, 12.248; Sc/hol. in Hom. passim ; Plin. Nat. 4.12; Wolf, Proleg. in Hom. li.; Thiersch, Ueber das Zeitalter und Vaterland des Homer, pp. 19-64; Lersch, Die Sprachphilosophie der Alten, i. pp. 67, 69-72, 112, 2.148, 243; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. i. pp. 318, 509, iii. p. 558; Clinton, Fast. Hell. iii. pp. 528, 529.) [P.S]

(Κράτης), a very ancient Greek musician, the disciple of Olympus, to whom some ascribed the composition for the flute, which was called νόμος Πολυκέφαλος, and which was more usually attributed to Olympus himself. (Plut. de Mus. 7, p. 1133e.) Nothing further is known of him. [P.S]

(Κράτης), of Tarsus, an Academic philosopher, is expressly distinguished by Diogenes Laertius (2.114, 117) from Crates of Athens, with whom he has been often confounded. [A.S]

(Κράτης) of Thebes, the son of Ascondus, repaired to Athens, where he became a scholar of the Cynic Diogenes, and subsequently one of the most distinguished of the Cynic philosophers.

He flourished, according to Diogenes Laertius (6.87), in B. C. 328, was still living at Athens in the time of Demetrius Phalereus (Athen. 10.422c.; D. L. 6.90), and was at Thebes in B. C. 307, when Demetrius Phalereus withdrew thither. (Plut. Mor. p. 69c.)

Crates was one of the most singular phaenomena of a time which abounded in all sorts of strange characters. Though heir to a large fortune, he renounced it all and bestowed it upon his native city, since a philosopher had no need of money ; or, according to another account, he placed it in the hands of a banker, with the charge, that he should deliver it to his sons, in case they were simpletons, but that, if they became philosophers, he should distribute it among the poor. Diogenes Laertius has preserved a number of curious tales about Crates, which prove that he lived and died as a true Cynic, disregarding all external pleasures, restricting himself to the most absolute necessaries, and retaining in every situation of life the most perfect mastery over his desires, complete equanimity of temper, and a constant flow of good spirits. While exercising this self-controul, he was equally severe against the vices of others; the female sex in particular was severely lashed by him; and he received the surname of the "Door-opener," because it was his practice to visit every house at Athens, and rebuke its inmates. In spite of the poverty to which he had reduced himself, and not-withstanding his ugly and deformed figure, he inspired Hipparchia, the daughter of a family of distinction, with such an ardent affection for him, that she refused many wealthy suitors, and threatened to commit suicide unless her parents would give their consent to her union with the philosopher. Of the married life of this philosophic couple Diogenes Laertius relates some very curious facts. Works Letters

Crates wrote a book of letters on philosophical subjects, the style of which is compared by Laertius (6.98) to Plato's; but these are no longer extant, for the fourteen letters which were published from a Venetian manuscript under the name of Crates in the Aldine collection of Greek letters (Venet. 1499, 4to.), and the thirty-eight which have been published from the same manuscript by Boissonade (Notices et Extraits des Manuscr. de la Bibl. du Roi, vol. xi. part ii. Paris, 1827) and which are likewise ascribed to Crates, are, like the greater number of such letters, the composition of later rhetoricians. Tragedies and other poems

Crates was also the author of tragedies of an earnest philosophical character, which are praised by Laertius, and likewise of some smaller poems, which seem to have been called Παίγνια, and to which the Φακῆς ἐγκώμιον quoted by Athenaeus (iv. p. 158b.) perhaps belonged. Lost life of Crates by Plutarch

Plutarch wrote a detailed biography of Crates, which unfortunately is lost. Further Information

D. L. 6.85_93, 96-98; Brunck, Anal. i. p. 186 ; Jacobs, Anth. Graec. i. p. 118; Brucker, Hist. Philosophy. i. p. 888; Fabric. Bibl. Graec. iii. p. 514. [A.S]

(Κράτης) of Tralles, an orator or rhetorician of the school of Isocrates. (D. L. 4.23.) Ruhnken assigns to him the λογοί δημηγορικοίκ which Apollodorus (apud Diog. l.c.) ascribes to the Academic philosopher, Crates. (Hist. Crit. Orat. Graec. in Opusc. i. p. 370.) Menagius (Comm. in Diog. l.c.) is wrong in supposing that Crates is mentioned by Lucian. (Rhet. Praecept. 9.) The person there spoken of is Critias the sculptor. [P.S]

1. An artist, celebrated for making cups with carved figures upon them. (Athen. 11.782b.)

2. A famous digger of channels at the time of Alexander. (D. L. 4.23; Strab. ix. p.407; Steph. Byz. s. v. Ἀθῆναν.) [L.U]

(Κράτης). (1) A celebrated Athenian poet of the Old Comedy, who began to flourish B.C. 449.

(2) Of Thebes, a pupil of the Cynic Diogenes, and one of the most distinguished of the Cynic philosophers, flourished about B.C. 320. (See Cynici.)

(3) Of Mallus in Cilicia, a celebrated grammarian, who founded the school of grammar at Pergamus, and wrote a commentary on the Homeric poems (Διορθωτικά) in opposition to Aristarchus. In B.C. 157, he was sent by Attalus to Rome as an ambassador, where he was the first to introduce the study of grammar. Besides his Homeric studies, Crates wrote commentaries on Euripides and Aristophanes and a treatise on the Attic dialect (Περὶ Ἀττικῆς Διαλέκτου). See Wachsmuth, De Cratete Mallota (Leipzig, 1860); Susemihl, Geschichte d. griech. Litt. in der Alexandr. Zeit, ii. pp. 4-12 and 703; Conze, in the Berl. Acad. Sitzungsber. (1884); and Consbruch, in the Comment. in Honorem Studemundi (Strassburg, 1889). Also the articles Grammatica; Philology.