A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

2. DIOSCORIDES PHACAS (Φακᾶς) a physician who was one of the followers of Herophilus (Galen, Gloss. Hippocr. prooem. vol. xix. p. 63), and lived in the second or first century B. C. According to Suidas (s. v. Διοσκ.), who, however, confounds him with Dioscorides of Anazarba, he lived at the court of Cleopatra in the time of Antony, B. C. 41-30, and was surnamed Phacas on account of the moles or freckles on his face. He is probably the same physician who is mentioned by Galen (Gloss. Hippoer. s. v. Ἰνδικόν, vol. xix. p. 105), and Paulus Aegineta (De Re Med. 4.24), as a native of Alexandria. He wrote several medical works, which are not now extant. (Suid. l.c.; Erotian. Gloss. Hippocr. p. 8.)