_Anacreon_. His odes are thought to be still extant, but very few of them can be truly ascribed to Anacreon. _Æschylus_ is the first who introduced two actors on the stage, and clothed them with suitable dresses. He likewise removed murder from the eyes of the spectator. He wrote 90 tragedies, of which 7 are extant, viz. Prometheus Vinctus, Septem Duces contra Thebas, Persæ, Agamemnon, Chöephoræ, Eumenides and Supplices. _Pindar_ was his contemporary. Most of Pindar's works have perished. He had written some hymns to the Gods,--poems in honor of Apollo,--dithyrambics to Bacchus, and odes on several victories obtained at the Olympic, Isthmian, Pythian and Nemean games. Of all these the odes alone remain. _Sophocles_ first increased the number of actors to three, and added the decorations of painted scenery. He composed 120 tragedies--7 only of which are extant, viz. Ajax, Electra, Œdipus, Antigone, The Trachniæ, Philoctetes and Œdipus at Colonos. B.C. 454. _Plato_, the comic poet, called the prince of the middle comedy, and of whose pieces some fragments remain, flourished about this time. Also, _Aristarchus_, the tragic poet of Tegea, who composed 70 tragedies, one of which was translated into Latin verse by Ennius. _Herodotus_ of Halicarnassus, wrote a history of the Wars of the Greeks against the Persians from the age of Cyrus to the battle of Mycale, including an account of the most celebrated nations in the world. Besides this, he had written a history of Assyria and Arabia which is not extant. There is a life of Homer generally attributed to him, but doubtfully. B.C. 445. _Euripides_, who lived at this time, wrote 75 or, as some say, 92 tragedies, of which only 19 are extant. He was the rival of Sophocles. About the commencement of the Peloponnesian war, flourished many celebrated authors, among whom was _Aristophanes_. He wrote 54 comedies, of which only 11 are extant. Also, _Cratinus_ and _Eupolis_, who with Aristophanes, are mentioned by Horace--they were celebrated for their comic writings. B.C. 431. Also, the mathematician and astrologer, _Meton_, who, in a book called Enneadecaterides, endeavored to adjust the course of the sun and moon, and maintained that the solar and lunar years could regularly begin from the same point in the heavens. This is called the Metonic cycle. _Thucydides_ flourished at this time. He wrote a history of the important events which happened during his command. This history is continued only to the 21st year of the war. It has been divided into eight books--the last of which is supposed to have been written by his daughters. It is imperfect. Also _Hippocrates_;--few of his writings remain. _Lysias_, the orator, wrote, according to Plutarch, no less than 425 orations--of these 34 are extant. B.C. 404. Contemporary with him was _Agatho_, an Athenian tragic and comic poet--there is now nothing extant of his works, except quotations in Aristotle and others.