Chionĭdes
(
Χιονίδης). Said to have been the earliest writer of the
old Athenian comedy. (Cf.
Aristot. Poet. iii.
5.) His representations date from B.C. 487. The names of three of his comedies are
recorded,
Ἥρωες, Περσαὶ ἢ Ἀσσυριοί, and
Πτωχοί. To judge from these titles, we should conclude that his
comedies had a political reference, and were full of personal satire; and from an allusion in
Vitruvius (
Praef. in lib. vi.) we may infer that they were gnomic, like those
of Epicharmus. Ed. in Meineke,
Com. Frag. vol. i.