What is "diphilus"

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.

He was on intimate terms with the famous courtesan Gnathaena ( Athenaeus xiii. pp. 579, 583). He is said to have written 100 comedies; of these plays, only the titles and associated fragments of fifty-four of them are preserved. He sometimes acted himself. To judge from the imitations of Plautus (Casina from the Κληρούμενοι, Asinaria from the Ὀναγός, Rudens from some other play), he was very skilful in the construction of his plots. Terence also tells us that he introduced into the Adelphi (ii. I) a scene from the Συναποθνήσκοντες, which had been omitted by Plautus in his adaptation (Commorientes) of the same play.

According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica Eleventh Edition:

Diphilus, , a Greek physician of Siphnus, one of the Cyclades, who was a contemporary of Lysimachus, king of Thrace, about the beginning of the 3rd century BC. He wrote a work entitled, On Diet fit for Persons in good and bad Health, which is frequently quoted by Athenaeus, but of which nothing remains but the short fragments preserved by him.