On the differences of the comedies

The nature and the structure of the Περὶ διαφορᾶς κωμῳδιῶν are quite confuse too: according to Kaibel (1899: 3), either the author or someone else removed the first part of the treaty. Nesselrath (1990: 30-31) considers the text to be an epitome of Platonius' wider work instead. Freudenburg (1993: 83) proposes to see both texts as fragments of a wider treaty Περὶ κωμῳδίας (On comedy). The most convincing hypothesis is probably the second: as Nesselrath (1990: 30) writes, the complete header seems to introduce an extract (ἔκ τῶν Περὶ διαφορᾶς κωμῳδιῶν).

The treaty explains the shift from the Old Comedy to the Middle in political terms (transition from democracy to oligarchy: see Simons 2014).