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 contemporary 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 Graeca, having been collected from Athenaeus, Pollux, and other ancient authors. Plautus imitated Philo-lemon 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.)