Aristarchus (physician)

Aristarchus (Ancient Greek: Ἀρίσταρχος) was the name of at least two people of classical antiquity known to be physicians:

  • Aristarchus, a Greek physician, of whom no particulars are known, except that he was attached to the court of Berenice, the wife of Antiochus II Theos, king of Syria, around 261-246 BC, and persuaded her to entrust herself to the hands of her enemy Laodice I after Antiochus's death. This unfortunately ended in the execution of Berenice and her infant son.[1]
  • Aristarchus, another physician of obscure history, whose medical prescriptions are quoted by later and more renowned writers such as Galen and Sicamus Aëtius. He appears to have been a native of Tarsus in Cilicia.[2]

References edit

  1. ^ Polyaenus, Stratagems 8.50
  2. ^ Galen, De Compos. Medicam. ec. Loc. 5.11, vol. xiii. p. 824

  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainGreenhill, William Alexander (1870). "Aristarchus (physician) (1), (2)". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 1. p. 291.