His poem had a certain notoriety among readers in the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE: it was referred to by the comic poet Antiphanes, by Lynceus of Samos and by the philosophers Aristotle, Chrysippus and Clearchus of Soli.
Two plays of Epicrates, Emporos (Merchant) and Antilais (Against Lais), are mentioned by Suidas (s. «.), and are quoted by Athenaeus (xiv. p. 655, f., xiii. pp. 570, b., 605, e.), who also quotes his Amazones (x. p. 422, f.) and Dyspratos (Hard to Sell) (vi. p. 262, d.), and informs us that in the latter play Epicrates copied some things from the Dyspratos of Antiphanes.