DIPHILUS, of Sinope, poet of the new Attic Comedy and contemporary of Menander (342-291 B.c.). Most of his plays were written and acted at Athens, but he led a wandering life, and died at Smyrna (Athenaeus xiii. pp. 579, 583). He is said to have written oo comedies, the titles of fifty of which are preserved. He sometimes acted himself. To judge from the imitations of Plautus (Casina from the KX7ipo6,uEva, Asinaria from the 'Ova,76s, Rudens from some other play), he was very skilful in the construction of his plots. Terence also tells us that he introduced into the Adelphi (ii. I.) a scene from the which had been omitted by Plautus in his , adaptation (Commorientes) of the same play. The ancients were undecided whether to class him among the writers of the New or Middle comedy.
Fragments in H. Koch, Comicorum Atticorum fragmenta, ii.; see J. Denis, La Comedie grecque (1886), ii. p. 414; R. W. Bond in Classical Review (Feb. 191o, with trans. of Emporos fragm.).