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

2. A native of Tarentum (Galen, Comment. in Hippocr. " Epid. VI." i. praef. vol. xvii. pt. i. pp. 793, 794), one of the earliest commentators on the writings of Hippocrates (id. ibid.; Comment. in Hippocr. " De Humor." 1.24, vol. xvi. p. 196), and also one of the oldest of the Empirici. (id. Comment. in Hippocr. " Praedict. I." 2.58, vol. xvi. p. 636.) He lived after Herophilus, Callimachus (id. Comment. in Hippocr. " Epid. VI." 1.5, vol. xvii. pt. i. pp. 826, 827.), Bacchius (id. ibid. 1.1, vol. xvii. pt. i. pp. 793, 794; 4.9, vol. xvii. pt. ii. p. 145) and Glatucias (id. Comment. in Hippocr. " De Humor." 2.30, vol. xvi. p. 327; Comment. in Hippocr. " Epid. VI." i. praef.; 2.65, vol. xvii. pt. i. p. 793,794,992); and apparently before Zenon (Erotiani, Gloss. Hippocr. p. 216, ed. Franz.); and his date may therefore be placed about the middle of the third century B. C. He expounded the whole of the Hippocratic Collection (Galen, Comment. in Hippocr. " De Humor." i. praef. 24, vol. xvi. pp. 1, 196; Comment. in Hippocr. " Praedict. I." 2.58, vol. xvi. p. 636; Comment. in Hippocr. " De Offic. Med." i. praef. vol. xviii. pt. ii. p. 631), but his commentaries were not much esteemed in Galen's time, and had become scarce. (Id. Comment. in Hippocr. "Epid. III." 2.4, vol. xvii. pt. i. p. 605.) A brass coin struck at Smyrna is supposed by Mead to refer to this physician, but this is uncertain. (See Mead, Dissert. de Nummis quibusdam a Smyrnaeis in Medicor. Honoreem percussis ; Littré, Oeuvres d' Hippocr. vol. i. pp. 89, 104; Sprengel, Gesch. der Arzneikunde, vol. i. ed. 1846; Daremberg, Cours sur l' Hist. et la Littér. des Sciences Méd., Année 2, Leçon 4.)

[W.A.G]