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

[*](* In the spurious oration attributed to Thessalus (ap. Hippocr. Opera, vol. iii. p. 843), and also in some Latin works, he is called Polybius, but this is probably a mistake.) (Πόλυβος), one of the pupils of Hippocrates, who was also his son-in-law, and lived in the island of Cos, in the fourth century B. C.

Nothing is known of the events of his life, except that, with his brothers-in-law, Thessalus and Dracon, he was one of the founders of the ancient medical sect of the dogmatici) ; that he was sent abroad by Hippocrates, with his fellow-pupils, during the time of the plague, to assist different cities with his medical skill (Thessal. Orat. p. 843), and that he afterwards remained in his native country (Galen, Comment. in Hippocr. "De Nat. Hom." i. praef. vol. xv. p. 12). According to Galen (l.c.), he followed implicitly the opinions and mode of practice of Hippocrates; but the strict accuracy of this assertion has been doubted.

[W.A.G]