Nicomachus

3. A poet of the new comedy. The Εἰλήθυια, perhaps the Μετεκβαίνουσαι, both attributed to the first Nicomachus, by Suidas, and another, the Ναυμαχια were probably written by him. Of the first, we have an extract, consisting of forty-two lines, in Athenaeus (vii. p. 290e.), containing a humorous dialogue, wherein a cook magnifies the requirements of his office. (Meineke, vol. v. p. 583, &c.) Of the last we have two lines preserved by Stobaeus, 33. 10. (Meineke, vol.v. p.583; Stob. vol. ii. p.59, ed. Gaisford.) Athenaeus gives (ii. p. 58a.) three lines, and (xi. p. 781f.) one line (Meineke, vol. v. p. 587, &c.), from plays of Nicomachus, whose titles he does not mention.

There are several other literary persons of this name. By one of them there is an epigram on an earthquake which desolated Plataea. The point of it lies in the ruins of Plataea, constituting the monument of those that perished. Of the date of the earthquake, or the writer of the epigram, we know nothing. (Anth. Graec. vol. ii. p. 258, ed. Jacobs.) Nor do we know who the Nicomachus is who wrote περὶ ἑορτῶν Αἰγυπτίων, quoted by Athenaeus (xi. p. 478a.), though this work is sometimes attributed to Nicomachus Gerasenus.

[W.M.G]