Philocles () was a tragic poet of ancient Greece who lived in the 4th century BCE and was a member of a large, multigenerational theatre dynasty.Johann Albert Fabricius, Bibliotheca Graeca vol. ii. p. 314Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker, Die griechischen Tragödien mit Rücksicht auf den epischen Zyklus geordnet p. 967August Meineke, Hist. Crit. Com. Graec. p. 521Georg Heinrich Bode, Geschichte der Hellenischen Dichtkunst vol. iii. pt. i. pp. 538, 539Henry Fynes Clinton, Fasti Hellenici, the Civil and Literary Chronology of Greece from the 55th to the 124th Olympiad (1824–1851), including dissertations on points of Greek history and Scriptural chronology vol. ii. p. xxxv
He was the great-grandnephew of Aeschylus, great-grandson of Philocles, grandson of Morsimus, son of Astydamas the Elder, and brother of Astydamas the Younger, all of whom were also notable tragic poets.
Philocles himself was also a tragic poet, according to the scholiast on Aristophanes.Aristophanes, The Birds 281 All of his works are lost. Today we know only the title of a single play of his, Phrixus (Φριξος).
The 19th century classicist proposed an elaborate argument to show that there are no grounds for supposing that this Philocles really was a tragic poet, partly related to the fact that the 10th century Byzantine encyclopedia called the Suda describes this Philocles as a military general. Most scholars do not agree with this position, and believe we ought to accept the statement of the scholiast, and to assume strategos (στρατηγός, or military general) in the Suda was an error that ought to have read tragikos (τραγικός, or tragic poet).Karl Ludwig Kayser, Hist Crit. Trag. Graec. p. 46
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