Elegy and Iambus. with an English Translation by. J. M. Edmonds. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1931. 2. ====== Astydamas: Poems ====== “Astydamas the Elder: —Son of Morsimus son of Philocles, both writers of tragedy; of Athens; writer of tragedy; wrote 240 plays; was 15 times victorious; he was a disciple of Isocrates, and changed his subject for tragedy.” Suidas Lexicon ---- “At this time (398 B.C.) Astydamas the tragedy-writer produced his first play. He lived to be sixty (?) years of age.” Diodorus of Sicily Historical Library ---- “From the time when Astydamas won at Athens 109 years, in the archonship of Asteius at Athens (373 B.C.).1” Parian Chronicle ---- “The Athenians honoured Astydamas above poets like Aeschylus by giving him a bronze statue.” Diogenes Laertius Lives of the Philosophers 2. 43 ---- ===== Inscription ===== You praise yourself like old Astydamas:—Astydamas son of Morsimus, having won the prize with his tragedy Parthenopaeus , was accorded by the Athenians the right of dedicating his portrait in the Theatre, and composed on himself the following boastful inscription: //Would I had lived in their day or they in mine, who bear the palm for a happy tongue: then should I have been truly judged if I had come off first; but alas! the competitors beyond cavil were before my day.2// Photius Lexicon: 1 inscriptions mention the performance of his tragedies in 348,342, and 341 ( Parthernopaeus ) cf. Dittenb. 1078; we should therefore prob. read his age above as 90, but there has perh. been confusion between A. and his son of the same name 2 cf. Suid. σαυτὴν ἐπαινεῖς , Zenob. 5. 100