This volume of the series «Fragmenta Comica» is devoted to one of the major names in the first generation of comic poets, Crates. Mentioned by Aristophanes in the Knights among his predecessors ill-treated by the public, and credited in Aristoteles' Poetics of a key-role within the history of the comic genre, Crates appears to have received significant attention in antiquity. Yet tradition has not been kind with him and the remains of his production are very scanty and in many ways problematic. Almost half a century after the last monograph devoted to Crates, Serena Perrone offers a new close analysis of the testimonia and the sixty surviving fragments, translated and commented in detail. The picture that emerges is of a much more nuanced profile than previously described.

Dr. Serena Perrone ist Professorin für Klassische Philologie an der Universität Genua, Italien.