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[German version] I Greek (Φίλων/ Phíl ōn). [German version] [I 1] Athenian politician Athenian from Acharnae who was exiled by the Oligarchic regime in 404 BC (Triakonta). During the civil war, he lived as a metoikos (resident without Attic citizenship) in Oropos awaiting the outcome of events. Following his return, when he applied to join the boulḗ he was accused of cowardice and other misdemeanours at a dokimasia investigation (Dokimasia) (Lys. 31; possibly 398 BC). Walter, Uwe (Cologne) Bibliography Blass, vol.1, 480f.  Th.Lenschau, A. Raubitschek, s.v. P. (2), RE 19, 2526f. …

(Ἱεροκλῆς; Hieroklês). [German version] [1] Carian mercenary leader of the 3rd cent. BC Carian mercenary leader of the 3rd cent. BC. In 287/6 together with Heraclides he foiled the attempt of Athenian democrats to take the Piraeus and the Munychia (Polyaenus, Strat. 5,17). Under  Antigonus [2] Gonatas, H. held the position of a Macedonian phroúrarchos (‘commandant of a garrison’) in Piraeus and repeatedly was host to the king. He was a friend of the leader of the Academy, Arcesilaus [5] (Diog. Laert. 4,39f.) and acquainted with Menedemus (Diog. Laert. 2,127).  Demetrius [2] Engels, Joh…

(Τρύφων/ Trýphōn). [German version] [1] The usurper Diodotus of Casiane, 2nd cent. BC Name assumed by the usurper Diodotus from Casiane near Apamea [3] (Str. 16,2,10). As strategos of Demetrius [7] I, D./T. went over to the pretender to the throne Alexander [II 13] Balas, betrayed Antioch [1] on the Orontes to Ptolemaeus [9] VI, occupied Apamea [3] and Chalcis, but then did not switch over to Demetrius [8] II, instead raising Alexander's [13] son to king as Antiochus [8] VI in 145 BC. He defeated Demetrius and allied with…

(Λύκος; Lýkos). Mythology and religion: L. [1-9], historical persons: L. [10-13], rivers: L. [14-19]. [German version] [1] Son of Poseidon and the Pleiad Celaeno Son of Poseidon and the Pleiad Celaeno [1] (Ps.-Eratosth. Katasterismoi 23), only Apollod. 3,111 mentions his translation to the Islands of the Blessed, possibly to differentiate him from L. [6], with whom he is connected by Hyg. Fab. 31, 76 and 157 in spite of the descent from Poseidon. Scherf, Johannes (Tübingen) [German version] [2] Son of Prometheus and Celaeno Son of Prometheus and Celaeno [1], on whose tomb in th…

[German version] Therapeutic intervention in human and veterinary medicine, consisting of the causing of a ‘burn’ on the surface of the body using two different techniques with their respective indications: a burn in the actual sense by means of an iron made red-hot on coals, then by means of a lamp-wick ( mýkēs, e.g. Hippoc. De internis affectionibus 212,14 L.); it was used to make the tissue contract. In this way it was said that a mechanical repair of fractures was achieved [3. 164-165], or in the case of a poisonous bite or sting, the poison …

[German version] (φυσιογνωμονία/ physiognōmonía, Lat. physiognomia). Within ancient psychology, physiognomy represented a set of techniques, assessing a person's personality and character through the observation of physical characteristics and behaviour (Ps.-Aristot. Physiognom. 6-7). Extant sources: the treatise Physiognōmoniká, attributed to Aristotle [6], but probably originating from the Peripatos and the 3rd cent. BC; based on this, Polemon's [6] treatise, written between AD 133 and 136, of which a fragment and an Arabic tran…

[German version] Helvius V., 4th-century AD physician, of African origin, teacher of Theodorus [3] Priscianus. V. had - probably in 382 - contacts with Augustinus. He concluded his political career with a proconsulship in Africa, where, after being comes archiatrorum presumably in 379, he worked as a physician. V. is mentioned in the Codex Theodosianus (Cod. Theod. 10,19,9: AD 378; 13,3,12: 379). V. wrote several treatises influenced by Greek medicine, today lost apart from forewords ( praefationes) or fragments: (1) a collection of recipes, of which only the Epistula ad Valentinia…

CH Greek Latin name Main areas of use in antiquity Modern medical Identification Common Diosc. Plin. HN (*1) (*2) name (*3) (selection) (*4) properties (*5) (*6) name (*7) (*8) 1 87 smýrna balsamum, myrrha 69 + 18 (ophthalmology , wound treatment) ? Commiphora abyssinica Engl. Myrrh 1,64 12,66-71 2 72 kýminon cuminum 51 + 21 (stomach complaints , fever) adstringent, peptogenic, emmenagogic, lactogenic, stomachic Cuminum cyminum L. Cumin 3,59 20,159-162 3 63 helléboros elleborum, elleborus 16 + 47 (consumption , purification , hydropsy , rheumatism) Veratrum album: antirheumatic, H.…

I. The Ancient Orient [German version] A. Sources Indirect: The Akkadian collection of Ḫammurapi’s laws (18th cent. BC) mentions the treatment of oxen (Cattle) and donkeys [1. 70, § 224 f.]. Direct: we know of ten remedies in Ugaritic, and six confirmed as such in Accadian; they confine themselves to the treatment of diseases in horses [2]. Böck, Barbara (Madrid) [German version] B. Specialists As far as can be ascertained from the sources, a distinction was made between veterinarians for bovines and for equines [1. 70, § 224, 18; 4]. The profession of donke…

[German version] (ἰός/ iós and φάρμακον/ phármakon sc. δηλητήριον/ dēlētḗrion, lat. virus and venenum). Poisons were not distinguished according to their origin (animal or plant), but according to the manner in which they were introduced to the body: inoculation (sting: πληγή/ plēgḗ, ictus; bite: δάκος/ dákos, morsus) or oral absorption (πόσις/ pósis, potus); common to all is the definition of a substance affecting the organism. Starting with the Epic Cycle, there is documentary evidence of animal and plant poisons as well as plants with magical or respectively h…

[German version] (Φιλούμενος; Philoúmenos). Author of a treatise on poisonings (Περὶ ἰοβόλων ζῴων καὶ τῶν ἐν αὐτοῖς βοηθημάτων, 'On poisonous animals and medicines extracted from them') that has only been passed down to us in the MS Vat. Gr. 284 (10th cent. AD). P.'s period of writing in any case later than Galenus - the work is structured following the model of the latter's treatise on toxicology - and it must have appeared before that of Oribasius who quotes him, i.e. it must be dated to the 2nd …

[German version] (Ὀρειβάσιος/ Oreibásios or Oribasios/Ὀριβάσιος). Greek doctor and author of medical treatises, b. around AD 320 in Pergamum, d. around AD 390/400 in an unknown location. After studying in Alexandria, O., who was not a Christian, returned to Pergamum. Once there, he practised medicine and gained an outstanding reputation as a doctor as well as a highly cultured man. He was a friend of the future emperor Iulianus [11], whom he had got to know possibly during Julian’s stay in Pergamum…

[German version] I Greek (Θεόδωρος; Theódōros). [German version] [I 1] Of Samos, Greek architect, bronze sculptor and inventor, Archaic period Multitalented Greek inventor, architect, bronze sculptor and metal worker ( toreutḗs; Toreutics) of the Archaic period from Samos (for the occupational image cf. architect). His father was Telecles (Hdt. 3,41; Paus. 8,14,8; 10,38,6) or according to other sources (Diog. Laert. 2,103; Diod. Sic. 1,98) Rhoecus [3]; his name is so frequently mentioned in conjunction with the latter that …

[German version] (Πετρωνᾶς, Petronâs often abbrev. to: Πέτρων, Pétrōn). Greek physician from Aegina, datable by the information that Ariston was his pupil (Anth. Pal. 546F); this Ariston is regarded as the author of the Hippocratic treatise Perì diaítēs ( De diaeta acutorum) dated to c. 400 BC, and Galen calls him παλαιός ('ancient') (CMG 9,1, 135,4). Although Celsus [7] places P. between Hippocrates and the Hellenistic physicians (3,9,2), P.'s medical views, which according to the Anonymus Londinensis (20,1) place him partly in associati…

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see Iulius [IV 15] (poet); see Iulius [IV 16] (jurist) [German version] I Greek (Παῦλος; Paûlos). [German version] [I 1] Bishop of Antioch [1], died after 272 Bishop of Antiochia [1] († after AD 272).…

[German version] 1st-century AD medical school. Its representatives explicitly defined themselves as Methodists (μεθοδικοί; methodikoí), as it was their goal to base the practice of medicine on a single simple method (μέθοδος; méthodos) that they could teach to anyone in just a few words. Extant are only the gynaecological treatise of Soranus,a Latin translation of his pathological writings by Caelius [II 11] Aurelianus and doxographic fragments, e.g. POxy. 3654 [1. 382-386, 388-390], probably a medical textbook from the time of Galenus. …

[German version] Renaissance title of a Latin book of formulae, based largely on the Medicina Plinii and written in the 5th/6th cents. AD. There are three recensions: 1. Sangallensis (6th/7th cents.) in three books (not yet published; titles of the chapters: [6. 41-55]; contains numerous incantations [5]); 2. Bambergensis [3], dated to the 5th/6th cents., but possibly more recent, and divided into three books; 3. Florentino-Pragensis [11; 10; 7] in five books (including the Medicinae ex oleribus et pomis of Gargilius [4] Martialis and the Liber dietarum diversorum medicorum by …

[German version] (κολλύριον; kollýrion, Lat. collyrium and βάλανος/ bálanos: Caelius Aurelianus, De morbis acutis 2,83; De morbis chronicis 2,39). Pharmaceutical form for administering medicinal substances, in local applications. These were pulverished and made into a uniform paste with binders, as is evident from the etymology ( kollýra: small, round bread roll without yeast [2. 145], bread dough [1. 556]). The kollyrion's two main types of use determine its form and function: a small cone was formed for insertion into anatomical or pathological orifice…

Italic nomen gentile. I. Republican Period [German version] [I 1] A young friend of M. Porcius [I 7] Cato; in 46 BC he wanted to follow Cato into death, but allowed himself to be dissuaded by philosophical arguments (Plut. Cato Minor 65,10 f.; 66,6-8; 73,7). He then joined cause with M. Iunius [I 10] Brutus, who, because of S.' attitude towards tyrannicide, did not dare let him in on the plot against Caesar. S. was killed in 42 as a scout at Philippi (Plut. Brutus 51,6). Fündling, Jörg (Bonn) [German version] [I 2] S., L. Roman equestrian and leading follower of Catilina (Cic. Cat. 3,6…

Name of a Roman plebeian family, probably from Caudium (CIL I2 1744 f.) and attested from the time of the 2nd Punic War. The branch of the Libones (S. [I 5-7; II 4-7]) attained the consulship with S. [I 7] and was part of the Roman high nobility in the early Imperial period. The Curiones (S. [I 1-4]), prominent in the 2nd and 1st cents. BC, disappeared with the Republic. I. Republican period [German version] [I 1] S. Curio, C. As aedile in 196 BC, he built the Temple of Faunus on the Tiber Island. Praetor urbanus in 183 and the second plebeian to be elected curio [2] maximus …

[German version] (κρίκωσις; kríkōsis, κρικοῦσθαι; krikoûsthai, infibulare). Placement of a ring (κρίκος; kríkos) or a fibula, minor surgery on the penis described by Celsus (7,25,2) and by Oribasius (50,11). The operation entailed tightening a thread through perforations in the foreskin until it would close no farther. A ring (or fibula) was then attached to prevent exposure of the glans. In some cases at least, it could be removed. Celsus considers the operation to be much more frequently useless than necessary and sees behind it health motives and an attempt t…

[German version] (ἰχώρ; ichṓr). The word has been connected to the Aramaic or Hebrew root meaning ‘dignity’, ‘splendour’, with possible etymological overlap of the Sumerian root meaning ‘blood’ and the Akkadian root meaning ‘to pour’. In Homer (Il. 5,340; cf. 416), the word denotes the lifeblood of the gods as opposed to regular blood that is produced by eating bread and drinking wine. Ichor also appears in Aeschylus (Ag. 1479f., 458 BC), where the word denotes a fluid which is discharged from wounds that will not close. In the 4th cent., it is more common …

[German version] A. Terminology Νόσος/ nósos (Ionic νοῦσος/ noûsos, ‘D’.; etym.: ‘being weakened’) describes disease in an imagery of aggression, which remained in use for a long time [17], as a result of external (divine) or internal origin, which ‘ruled over people and struck them down’ (e.g.: ἱερὰ νόσος; hierà nósos, ‘the sacred disease’, epilepsy). From about the 5th cent. BC, the term was increasingly rivalled by the derivation nósēma [30], perhaps an expression coined by the Sophists; in any case, it rapidly spread through the medical world. It does not hav…

(Ζεῦξις/ Zeûxis). [German version] [1] Greek painter and sculptor, c. 435/25-390 BC Greek painter and sculptor, active between c. 435/25 and 390 BC. He was one of the pioneers of the great era of Greek painting which would retain its high standards for over a century. 'Heraclea', which Plin. HN 35,61 gives as his place of origin, seems more likely to be the Sicilian Heraclea [9] Minoa ([1. 382]; but [2]: Heraclea [7] Pontica?) than Heraclea [10] in Lucania [3. 60], since Z. was the pupil of an otherwise unknown ma…

[German version] I Greek (Παλλάδιος; Palládios). [German version] [I 1] Greek rhetor, 4th cent. Greek rhetor of the first half of the 4th cent. AD (Suda s.v. P. gives his prime as under Constantinus [1] I) from Methone (probably the Messenian one). According to the Suda, in addition to declamations he wrote in all three rhetorical genres ( genera dicendi ) and also an antiquarian work on the festivals of the Romans (FGrH F 837). Whether P. is identical with one of the numerous Palladii mentioned in the letters of Libanius and if …

[German version] Compilation of medical texts written in Latin and attributed in the MSS to an otherwise unknown Plinius Secundus Iunior. Mentioned by Marcellus [8] Empiricus, it is generally accepted to date back to the early 4th cent. AD or even slightly before that. The compilation starts with the author's declaration of his intention to prevent the counterfeiting of medicinal products whose ingredients he then lists together with the relevant composition. The work consists of three books. Bk. 1-2: medicinal preparations, ordered accor…

[German version] [1] Quinctius S. Sammonicus Author of a collection of recipes (also Quintus Serenius). Author of the Liber Medicinalis, a collection of therapeutic recipes which can be neither dated nor identified; Q. has at times been identified with S. [2] Sammonicus or with his son (Septimius [II 6] S. Sammonicus; both died at the beginning of the 3rd cent. AD). The collection (dating between the 2nd and 4th cents. AD) cannot be chronologically ordered with any accuracy. It is written in hexameters and contain…

[German version] Name of the author to whom is ascribed the Liber medicinae ex animalibus from the corpus also containing Ps.-Musa, De herba vettonica, Ps.-Apuleius, Herbarius, the anonymous treatise De taxone and Ps.-Dioscorides, De herbis feminis. As the work borrows from Marcellus' [8] De medicamentis, it would appear to date from the 1st half of the 5th cent. AD. The author, who is sometimes confused with Sextus Platonicus, is unknown and may be historically dubious, especially since text [5. 233-286] and illustrations [6] are atteste…

[German version] (φίλτρον/ phíltron, Latin philtrum; also στέργηθρον/ stérgēthron and θέλκτρον ἔρωτος/ thélktron érōtos; Latin amatorium, pocula desiderii or amoris). Generally a love charm, more often instruments of such a charm (e.g. the tunic of Deianira, Soph. Trach. 584, 1144), usually made from plants, sometimes with mineral and animal substances. Phíltra were used in two ways: 1. The substances were burned in a magical ritual carried out by a professional sorcerer using additional materials (lead plates carrying magical formulae, a statu…

Widespread Italic nomen gentile. I. Republican period [German version] [I 1] V., L. Roman equestrian from Picenum, c. 106-59 BC. In 89 BC, V. probably served on the staff of Cn. Pompeius [I 8] Strabo (ILS 8888; [1. 161 f.]) and subsequently enriched himself as a favourite of L. Cornelius [I 90] Sulla (Sall. Hist. 1,55,17). He later joined the conspiracy of Catilina (Q. Tullius Cic. commentariolum petitionis 10), but betrayed it to Cicero in 63 BC (Cass. Dio. 37,41; Oros. 6,6,7). In 62, it seems that opponents o…

[German version] The term malaria covers a polymorphous complex of feverous diseases whose origin can be traced back to the parasite plasmodium carried by the anopheles mosquito. In antiquity, malaria could be distinguished by some of its symptoms: recurrent attacks of fever, particularly of three and four-day duration, swelling of the spleen (splenomegalia) or black urine. Aetiologially the feverous diseases were related to swampy regions, especially within the framework of climatic medicine. Treatment was symptom-…