Una neque multorum annorum spatio divisa aetas per divini spiritus viros, Aeschylum Sophoclen Euripiden, inlustravit tragoediam; una priscam illam et veterem sub Cratino Aristophaneque et Eupolide comoediam; ac novam comicam Menander aequalesque eius aetatis magis quam operis Philemo ac Diphilus et invenere intra paucissimos annos neque imitandam reliquere.
A single epoch, and that only of a few years duration, gave lustre to tragedy through three men of divine inspiration, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. So, with Comedy, a single age brought to perfection that early form, the Old Comedy, through the agency of Cratinus, Aristophanes, and Eupolis; while Menander, and Philemon and Diphilus, his equals in age rather than in performance, within the space of a very few years invented the New Comedy and left it to defy imitation.
final_alignments\Velleius_Paterculus_Compendium.json