A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

Smith, William

A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. William Smith, LLD, ed. 1890

(Διαγόρας), a Greek physician, who is quoted by Pliny as one of the authors from whom the materials for his Natural History were derived. (Index to books xii. xiii. xx. xxi. xxxv., and H. N. 20.76.) He must have lived in or before the third century B. C., as he is mentioned by Erasistratus (apud Dioscor. De Mat. Med. 4.65, p. 557), and may perhaps be the native of Cyprus quoted by Erotianus. (Gloss. Hippocr. p. 306.) One of his medical formulae is preserved by Aetius (tetrab. ii. serm. 3, 100.108, p. 353), and he may perhaps be the physician mentioned by an anonymous Arabic writer in Casiri. (Biblioth. Arabico Hisp. Esc. vol. i. p. 237.) Some persons have identified him with the celebrated philosopher, the slave of Democritus; but there is no evidence that they were the same person, nor is the philosopher (as far as the writer is aware) anywhere said to have been a physician.

[W.A.G]