Nausicrates

Nausicrates, a Greek comic poet, doubtfully placed by Clinton (F. H. vol. ii. p. xlv.) among the writers of the middle comedy. Meineke (Frag. Com. Graec. vol. i. p. 495) infers the same thing, from his tragicocomic style. Suidas (s. v.) attributes to him two plays, Naukleroi and Persis. Athenaeus (ix. p. 399, e.), when giving an extract from the play called Persis, calls him Naucrates; but this is clearly an error; or it may be a shortened form, similar to those adduced by Lobeck, in his edition of Aglaophamus (pp. 994, 996). From the fragments preserved by Athenaeus, consisting of twelve lines from the Naukleroi and three from the Persis, we can infer nothing of the plot; but there is some humour in his inflated description of the mullet and the blue shark in the passages from the former play. These passages are most ingeniously dovetailed and amended by Meineke (vol. iv. p. 575, &c.). (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. p. 471; Athen. l. c. vii. p. 296, a. p. 325, e. p. 330,b.)