Nicostratus, (gr. Nikostratos), the youngest of the three sons of Aristophanes, according to Apollodorus. He was himself a comic poet. By Athenaeus (xiii. p. 597, d.) he is expressly called a poet of the middle comedy. But he belonged also in part to the new comedy. Harpocration (p. 266) speaks of his play called Ornitheutes, as belonging to that species of comedy; and some of the characters which he introduced in other dramas demonstrate the same. In his Basileis he introduced a boasting soldier (Athen. vi. p. 230, d.); in his Tokistes, an avaricious money-lender (Athen. xv. p. 685, f.) and a vaunting cook (Athen. xiv. p. 664, b.). Photius (Cod. 190, p. 153, ed. Bekk.) has got a story that Nicostratus being inflamed with a mad passion for some one named Tettigidaea, leapt off the Leucadian rock.

The titles of nineteen of the plays of Nicostratus have come down to us. Three of these, the Antyllos (Athen. iii. 108, c. 118, e.), the Oinopion (Athen. iv. p. 169, e. vii. p. 280, d.; Suidas, s. v. Philetairos), and the Pandrosos (Athen. xiii. p. 587, d. xv. p. 693, a. b.) were also attributed to Philetaerus, who, according to some authorities (Schol. ad Plat. Apol. Socr. p. 331), was the third son of Aristophanes . The remaining plays of Nicostratus were: 7. Hierophantes. 8. Kline 9. Habra. 10. Hesiodos. 11. Diabolos. 12. Anterosa. 13. Ekate. 14. Mageiros. 15. Otis. 16. Ploutos. 17. Syros. 18. Apelaunomenos. 19. Pseudostigmatias. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. p. 472; Meineke, Hist. Crit. Com. Graec. pp. 346, &c.; Bode, Gesch. der Hellen. Dichtkunst, vol. iii. part. ii. p. 410.)