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(Φιλώτας; Philṓtas). [German version] [1] Macedonian nobleman, 4th cent. BC Eldest son of Parmenion [1]; following Philippus' [I 4] II marriage to Cleopatra [II 2] P. stood by him against Alexander [4] the Great in the Pixodarus affair. After Philip’s death (336 BC) and the murder of Attalus [1] by Parmenion [1], P. was promoted to the command of the hetaíroi , whom he led in the great battles against the Persians. In autumn 330 BC his brother Nicanor [1] died. P. remained behind for the funeral while Alexander continued the march. …

[English version] One of the first official acts of the World Medical Association, founded in 1947, was drafting the Geneva Declaration (GD), a contemporary reformulation of the Hippocratic Oath; further improvements were made in 1968. The so-called abortion paragraph and the ban on surgery made way for more modern general provisions to respect human life from the moment of con…

[German version] [1] Common Roman praenomen Common Roman praenomen ; abbreviation: Q.; Greek Κόιντος/ Kóintos. It is identical to the ordinal quīntus (‘fifth’); in Oscan-Umbrian, this name is represented by Pompo and the like, with the nomina gentilicia Pomponius, Pompeius, Pontius. Like other so-called ‘numeral praenomina’, the former individual name could be given to children according to their birth order in the early period. In no case is Q. derived from quīntīlis (‘July’) because the name of this month is in turn already a derivative of quīntus (Months, names of the). The nomen ge…

Nutton, Vivian (London) [German version] I. Medicine (CT) In the 5th cent. AD, the originally Galenic notion (Galenism) that melancholy was a temperament ruled by black bile, one of the four main humours, irreversibly merged with the older notion of a specific illness by that name. In that way, black bile had come to be seen as the most dangerous bodily fluid, and melancholics seemed more than ever afflicted with all kinds of diseases. Isidorus [9] Etymologiae X 176, derived the term malus from an excess of black bile, which caused melancholics to avoid human company and mad…

Name of a Roman patrician family, probably originally from Cameria (hence the cognomen Camerinus); documented in the fasti from c. 500 BC. The otherwise rare praenomen Servius appears comparatively frequently and at times is even used in place of the nomen gentile (Tac. Hist. 2,48; Plut. Galba 3,1). The number of cognomina within the gens is high, but it has been impossible to identify clear branches. The link between the S. from the 3rd to the 2nd and 1st cent. BC is unclear. In the 2nd cent. BC, the most important branch of the family was that of…

(Διεύχης; …

(Ἀγαθοκλῆς; Agathoklês) [German version] [1] of Athens Archon 357/56 BC Archon 357/56 BC (Dem. Or. 47,44; Diod. Sic. 16,9). Meier, Mischa (Bielefeld) [German version] …

(Κλεόφαντος; Kleó…

[German version] (πυρετός/ pyretós, Lat. febris) strictly refers to a symptom only, i.e. a raise in body temperature, but all ancient medical authors frequently use this term to refer to a specific illness or class of illness. In modern diagnostic usage, the term covers a variety of conditions; thus the identification of any ancient ‘fever’ without any further sub-classification or other description of symptoms is bound to fail. Such aids to identification could consist of observations regarding the periodicity of fever attacks, as in the febris tertiana or febris quartana, …

Common Roman cognomen ('red-haired', 'redhead', Quint. Inst. 1,4,25). Elvers, Karl-Ludwig (Bochum) [German version] [1] [- - -]us R. Proconsul of Pontus-Bithynia with an impressive monument in Rome Proconsul of Pontus-Bithynia, probably in the final period of the Republic or the first years of Augustus. An impressive monument was erected for him in Rome by more than six cities of the province (CIL VI 1508 = 41054; cf. IGUR 71). Eck, Werner (Cologne) Bibliography W. Eck, CIL VI 1508 (Moretti IGUR 71) und die Gestaltung senatorischer Ehrenmonumente, in: Chiron 14, 1984, 201-217  PIR2 R …

[German version] from Marseilles ( Massalia), physician, who came to Rome in the time of Nero (Plin. HN. 29,9). He gained renown when he combined astronomy with medicine by orienting the diet plans for his patients according to the course of the stars. When he died, he left 10 million sesterces after having already spent the same sum on repairing the walls and other defences in his native town. Nutton, Vivian (London)

(Μοσχίων/ Moschíōn). [German version] [1] Tragedian, 3rd cent. BC Athenian tragedian, probably 2nd half of 3rd cent. BC, known almost solely through quotations by Stobaeus. Titles attested include ‘Telephos and two historical dramas: ‘Themistokles, at the heart of which was probably the naval battle at Salamis, following on from Aeschylus' ‘Persians, with the distinction that M. made Themistocles the protagonist; and ‘The Pheraeans, probably dealing with the death of Alexander [15] of Pherae. A lengthy f…

[German version] (Δημοκήδης; Dēmokḗdēs) of Croton. Greek physician, lived about 500 BC and according to Hdt. 3,125 was the best physician of his age. He was …

[German version] In Late Antiquity in Alexandria [1] writings by Galenus and to a lesser extent by Hippocrates [6] were assembled into a medical compendium. Known as the '16 Books of Galen', it covers the basic areas of medicine  (including anatomy, physiology and therapeutics). According to Arab sources [1], a number of teachers ( Iatrosophistḗs ) in Alexandria are supposed to have written a series of summaries or abridgements of the books contained in this compendium, which were then collected under the title SA and translated into Arabic and perhaps also into Hebrew [2]. In…

[German version] I. Ancient Orient In Babylonia and Egypt midwives are only known from allusions found in literary texts. In the Atraḫasis myth the mother goddess opens the womb, lets the woman deliver the baby ‘on the birth brick’ (cf. Ex 1,16) and determines the child's fate while cutting the umbilical cord. Stol, Marten (Leiden) Bibliography E. Brunner-Traut, s.v. Hebamme, LÄ 2, 1074f. M. Stol, Zwangerschap en geboorte bij de Babyloniërs en in de Bijbel, 1983, 84-86. [German version] II. Greece The story of Agnodike (Hyg. Fab. 274), the f…

(Βακχεῖος; Bakcheîos). …

[German version] (Φιλάγριος; Philágrios). Doctor from Epirus, fl. 3rd-4th cents. AD; he practised in Thessalonica and was the author of more than 70 books: treatises on dietetics, gout, dropsy and rabies as well as a commentary on Hippocrates [1]. He is often cited by later authors, especially in Arabic, for his treatment of diseases of the liver and spleen. Doctrinally, he often follows Galen, but pays particular attention to pneuma (Pneumatists) as the co-ordinating force in organisms. His name appears often in garbled form as …

[German version] An eye disease characterized by exudation, covering a variety of specific diseases like trachoma and conjunctivitis. A dry variety of lippitudo, xerophthalmía, in which the purulent eyes become stuck shut over night is also described (Celsus, De medicina 6,6,29). Celsus [7] (ibid. 6,6,2) reports a large number of ointments and other agents against lippitudo, an extremely common condition; this is confirmed by many ‘oculists' stamps’ for eye ointments ( Kollyrion) with the inscriptions ‘against lippitudo’ and by the large number of manufacturers of such …

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Roman family name, whose older and inscriptional form is Decumus (Schulze, 159), derived from  Decimus. Historic bearers of the name are documented since the 2nd half of the 2nd cent. BC. [German version] [1]…