A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

(Βάταλος), according to some, the author of lascivious drinking-songs, and according to others, an effeminate flute-player, who must have lived shortly before the time of Demosthenes, for the latter is said to have been nick-named Batalus on account of his weakly and delicate constitution. (Plut. Dem. 4, Vit. X. Orat. p. 847e.) According to Libanius ( Vit. Dem. p. 2, ed. Reiske), Batalus, the flute-player, was a native of Ephcsus, and the first man that ever appeared on the stage in women's shoes, for which reason he was ridiculed in a comedy of Antiphanes. Whether the poet and the flute-player were the same, or two different persons, is uncertain. (Comp. Meineke, Hist. Crit. Com. Graec. p. 333, &c.)

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