Diphilus

The orientalizing features of this figure, the short beard – typical of poets – and the pensive attitude, suggest that the work is a portrait of the poety Diphilus, born in Sinope, a city on the coast of the Black Sea. Diphilus lived between the middle of the 4th and the beginning of the 3rd centuries BC. From this time period is an original bronze portrait of the poet which compares to some works by the sculptor Scopas (ca. 375-ca.330 BC). This portrait is a Roman copy dating to the Early Imperial period. Diphilus (Greek: Δίφιλος), of Sinope, was a poet of the new Attic comedy and contemporary of Menander (342-291 BC). Most of his plays were written and acted at Athens, but he led a wandering life, and died at Smyrna.