PHILEMON, a writer of the new comedy, was born at
Soli, in Cilicia, but the precise date of his birth and death
is unknown. He began to exhibit his plays at Athens in
the reign of Alexander, B. C. 336-323, and died in the reign
of the second Antigonus, son of Demetrius, probably about
B. C. 280, at the age of ninety-six. He was the contem-
porary of Menander, and frequently carried off the prize from
him, by the attention he paid to humour the prejudices of
the people. He was the author of ninety comedies, the
names of fifty-one of which are given by Fabricius in his Bibliotheca Græca, having been collected from Athenæus, Pollux, and other ancient authors. Plautus imitated Philemon in his comedy of the Merchant, and in that of the Bacchides. The fragments of Philemon have been collected by Hertel and Gronovius. They have also been published along with the fragments of Menander, Amsterdam, 1709, 8vo. (See MENANDER.)