A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

(Ἀγάθινος), an eminent ancient Greek physician, the founder of a new medical sect, to which he gave the name of Episynthetici. (Dict. of Ant. s. v. EPISYNTHETICI.) He was born at Sparta and must have lived in the first century after Christ, as he was the pupil of Athenaeus, and the tutor of Archigenes. (Galen. Definit. Med. c. 14. vol. xix. p. 335; Suidas, s. v. Ἀρχιγένης; Eudoc. Violar. ap. Villoison, Anecd. Gr. vol. i. p. 65.) He is said to have been once seized with an attack of delirium, brought on by want of sleep, from which he was delivered by his pupil Archigenes, who ordered his head to be fomented with a great quantity of warm oil. (Aetius, tetr. i. serm. 3.172, p. 156.) He is frequently quoted by Galen, who mentions him among the Pneumatici. (De Dignosc. Puls. 1.3, vol. viii. p. 787.) None of his writings are now extant, but a few fragments are contained in Matthaei's Collection, entitled XXI Veterum et Clarorum Medicorum Graecorum Varia Opuscula, Mosquae, 1808, 4to. See also Palladius, Comment. in Hippocr. " De Morb. Popul. lib. vi." ap. Dietz, Scholia in Hippocr. et Galen. vol. ii. p. 56. The particular opinions of his sect are not exactly known, but they were probably nearly the same as those of the Eclectici. (Dict. of Ant. s. v. ECLECTICI.) (See J. C. Osterhausen, Histor. Sectae Pneumatic. Med. Altorf. 1791, 8vo.; C. G. Kühn, Additam. ad Elench. Medic. Vet. a J. A. Fabricio in " Biblioth. Gracca" exhibit.)

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