A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

(Ἀριστοφάνης).

1. Of Byzantium, a son of Apelles, and one of the most eminent Greek grammarians at Alexandria. He was a pupil of Zenodotus and Eratosthenes, and teacher of the celebrated Aristarchus. He lived about B. C. 264, in the reign of Ptolemy II. and Ptolemy III., and had the supreme management of the library at Alexandria. All the ancients agree in placing him among the most distinguished critics and grammarians. He founded a school of his own at Alexandria, and acquired great merits for what he did for the Greek language and literature. He and Aristarchus were the principal men who made out the canon of the classical writers of Greece, in the

selection of whom they shewed, with a few exceptions, a correct taste and appreciation of what was really good. (Ruhnken, Hist. Crit. Orat. Gr. p. xcv., &c.) Aristophanes was the first who introduced the use of accents in the Greek language. (J. Kreuser, Griech. Accentlehre, p. 167, &c.)