Athenaeus, The Learned Banqueters (Deipnosophistae) 555a · 555a

Athenaeus, to Timocrates — Ἀντιφάνης ὁ κωμῳδιοποιός, ἑταῖρε Τιμόκρατες, ὡς ἀνεγίνωσκέ τινα τῷ βασιλεῖ Ἀλεξάνδρῳ τῶν ἑαυτοῦ κωμῳδιῶν, ὃ δὲ δῆλος ἦν οὐ πάνυ τι ἀποδεχόμενος, ‘ δεῖ γάρ, ἔφησεν, ὦ βασιλεῦ, τὸν ταῦτα ἀποδεξόμενον ἀπὸ συμβόλων τε πολλάκις δεδειπνηκέναι καὶ περὶ ἑταίρας πλεονάκις καὶ εἰληφέναι καὶ δεδωκέναι πληγάς,’ ὥς φησι Λυκόφρων ὁ Χαλκιδεὺς ἐν τοῖς περὶ Κωμῳδίας. ἡμεῖς οὖν τὸν περὶ ἐρωτικῶν λόγον ἐνταῦθα μέλλοντες κατατάττειν

Antiphanes the comic poet, my friend Timocrates, was once reading one of his comedies to King Alexander, who plainly did not care for it. “You see, my king,” he said, “to enjoy these things a man must often have dined on shared bills, and many times have taken and given punches over courtesans,” as Lycophron of Chalcis says in his books On Comedy. So we too, about to set down here our talk about love…