Epicrates of Ambracia was an Ambraciote

Ambracia

Ambracia, occasionally Ampracia , was an ancient Corinthian colony, situated about 7 miles from the Ambracian Gulf in Greece, on a bend of the navigable river Arachthos , in the midst of a fertile wooded plain.-History:...

  who lived in Athens

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

, a comic poet of the Middle Comedy

Ancient Greek comedy

Ancient Greek comedy was one of the final three principal dramatic forms in the theatre of classical Greece . Athenian comedy is conventionally divided into three periods, Old Comedy, Middle Comedy, and New Comedy...

, according to the testimony of Athenaeus

Athenaeus

Athenaeus , of Naucratis in Egypt, Greek rhetorician and grammarian, flourished about the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd century AD...

 (x. p. 422, f.), confirmed by extant fragments of his plays, in which he ridicules Plato

Plato

Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...

 and his disciples, Speusippus

Speusippus

Speusippus was an ancient Greek philosopher. Speusippus was Plato's nephew by his sister Potone. After Plato's death, Speusippus inherited the Academy and remained its head for the next eight years. However, following a stroke, he passed the chair to Xenocrates. Although the successor to Plato...

 and Menedemus

Menedemus

Menedemus of Eretria was a Greek philosopher and founder of the Eretrian school. He learned philosophy first in Athens, and then, with his friend Asclepiades, he subsequently studied under Stilpo and Phaedo of Elis. Nothing survives of his philosophical views apart from a few scattered remarks...

, and in which he refers to the courtesan Lais of Corinth

Lais of Corinth

Lais of Corinth was a famous hetaera or courtesan of ancient Greece who was probably born in Corinth. Another hetaera with the same name was Lais of Hyccara. Since ancient authors in their -usually indirect- accounts often confuse them or do not indicate which they refer to, the two are...

, as being now far advanced in years. (Athen. ii. p. 59, d., xiii. p. 570, b.) From these indications, Augustus Meineke

Augustus Meineke

Johann Albrecht Friedrich August Meineke , German classical scholar, was born at Soest in Westphalia.After holding educational posts at Jenkau and Danzig , he was director of the Joachimsthal Gymnasium in Berlin from 1826 to 1856. He died at Berlin on 12 December 1870...

 infers that he flourished between the 101st and 108th Olympiads (376–348 BC). Two plays of Epicrates, Emporus (Merchant) and Antilais (Against Lais

Lais of Corinth

Lais of Corinth was a famous hetaera or courtesan of ancient Greece who was probably born in Corinth. Another hetaera with the same name was Lais of Hyccara. Since ancient authors in their -usually indirect- accounts often confuse them or do not indicate which they refer to, the two are...

), are mentioned by Suidas (s. «.), and are quoted by Athenaeus

Athenaeus

Athenaeus , of Naucratis in Egypt, Greek rhetorician and grammarian, flourished about the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd century AD...

 (xiv. p. 655, f., xiii. pp. 570, b., 605, e.), who also quotes his Amazones (x. p. 422, f.) and Dyspratus (Hard to Sell) (vi. p. 262, d.), and informs us that in the latter play Epicrates copied some things from the Dyspratus of Antiphanes

Antiphanes

Antiphanes is regarded as the most important writer of the Middle Attic comedy with the exception of Alexis.He was apparently a foreigner who settled in Athens , where he began to write about 387...

. Aelian

Claudius Aelianus

Claudius Aelianus , often seen as just Aelian, born at Praeneste, was a Roman author and teacher of rhetoric who flourished under Septimius Severus and probably outlived Elagabalus, who died in 222...

(N.A.xii. 10) quotes the Chorus (Dance) of Epicrates.