Egypt (Roman province)
The Roman province of Egypt was established in 30 BC after Octavian defeated his rival Mark Antony, deposed Pharaoh Cleopatra, annexed the Ptolemaic Kingdom to the Roman Empire. The province encompassed most of modern-day Egypt except for the Sinai Peninsula. Aegyptus was bordered by the provinces of Crete and Cyrenaica to Judea to the East; the province came to serve as a major producer of grain for the empire and had a developed urban economy. Aegyptus was by far the wealthiest Eastern Roman province, by far the wealthiest Roman province outside of Italia. In Alexandria, its capital, it possessed the largest port, the second largest city of the Roman Empire; as a key province, but the'crown domain' where the emperors succeeded the divine Pharaohs, Egypt was ruled by a uniquely styled Praefectus augustalis, instead of the traditional senatorial governor of other Roman provinces. The prefect was appointed by the Emperor; the first prefect of Aegyptus, Gaius Cornelius Gallus, brought Upper Egypt under Roman control by force of arms, established a protectorate over the southern frontier district, abandoned by the Ptolemies.
The second prefect, Aelius Gallus, made an unsuccessful expedition to conquer Arabia Petraea and Arabia Felix. The Red Sea coast of Aegyptus was not brought under Roman control until the reign of Claudius; the third prefect, Gaius Petronius, cleared the neglected canals for irrigation, stimulating a revival of agriculture. Petronius led a campaign into present-day central Sudan against the Kingdom of Kush at Meroe, whose queen Imanarenat had attacked Roman Egypt. Failing to acquire permanent gains, in 22 BC he razed the city of Napata to the ground and retreated to the north. From the reign of Nero onward, Aegyptus enjoyed an era of prosperity. Much trouble was caused by religious conflicts between the Greeks and the Jews in Alexandria, which after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 became the world centre of Jewish religion and culture. Under Trajan a Jewish revolt occurred, resulting in the suppression of the Jews of Alexandria and the loss of all their privileges, although they soon returned.
Hadrian, who twice visited Aegyptus, founded Antinopolis in memory of his drowned lover Antinous. From his reign onward buildings in the Greco-Roman style were erected throughout the country Under Antoninus Pius oppressive taxation led to a revolt in 139, of the native Egyptians, suppressed only after several years of fighting; this Bucolic War, led by one Isidorus, caused great damage to the economy and marked the beginning of Egypt's economic decline. Avidius Cassius, who led the Roman forces in the war, declared himself emperor in 175, was acknowledged by the armies of Syria and Aegyptus. On the approach of Marcus Aurelius, Cassius was deposed and killed and the clemency of the emperor restored peace. A similar revolt broke out in 193, when Pescennius Niger was proclaimed emperor on the death of Pertinax; the Emperor Septimius Severus gave a constitution to Alexandria and the provincial capitals in 202. Caracalla granted Roman citizenship to all Egyptians, in common with the other provincials, but this was to extort more taxes, which grew onerous as the needs of the emperors for more revenue grew more desperate.
There was a series of revolts, both civilian, through the 3rd century. Under Decius, in 250, the Christians again suffered from persecution, but their religion continued to spread; the prefect of Aegyptus in 260, Mussius Aemilianus, first supported the Macriani, usurpers during the rule of Gallienus, in 261, became a usurper himself, but was defeated by Gallienus. Zenobia, queen of Palmyra, took the country away from the Romans when she conquered Aegyptus in 269, declaring herself the Queen of Egypt also; this warrior queen claimed that Egypt was an ancestral home of hers through a familial tie to Cleopatra VII. She was well educated and familiar with the culture of Egypt, its religion, its language, she lost it when the Roman emperor, severed amicable relations between the two countries and retook Egypt in 274. Two generals based in Aegyptus and Domitius Domitianus, led successful revolts and made themselves emperors. Diocletian reorganised the whole province, his edict of 303 against the Christians began a new era of persecution.
This was the last serious attempt to stem the steady growth of Christianity in Egypt, however. As Rome overtook the Ptolemaic system in place for areas of Egypt, they made many changes; the effect of the Roman conquest was at first to strengthen the position of the Greeks and of Hellenism against Egyptian influences. Some of the previous offices and names of offices under the Hellenistic Ptolemaic rule were kept, some were changed, some names would have remained but the function and administration would have changed; the Romans introduced important changes in the administrative system, aimed at achieving a high level of efficiency and maximizing revenue. The duties of the prefect of Aegyptus combined responsibility for military security through command of the legions and cohorts, for the organization of finance and taxation, for the administration of justice; the reforms of the early 4th century had established the basis for another 250 years of comparative prosperity in Aegyptus, at a cost of greater rigidity and more oppressive state control.
Aegyptus was subdivided for administrative purposes into a number of smaller provinces, s
Democritus
Democritus was an Ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher remembered today for his formulation of an atomic theory of the universe. Democritus was born in Abdera, around 460 BC, although there are disagreements about the exact year, his exact contributions are difficult to disentangle from those of his mentor Leucippus, as they are mentioned together in texts. Their speculation on atoms, taken from Leucippus, bears a passing and partial resemblance to the 19th-century understanding of atomic structure that has led some to regard Democritus as more of a scientist than other Greek philosophers. Ignored in ancient Athens, Democritus is said to have been disliked so much by Plato that the latter wished all of his books burned, he was well known to his fellow northern-born philosopher Aristotle. Many consider Democritus to be the "father of modern science". None of his writings have survived. Democritus was said to be born in the city of Abdera in Thrace, an Ionian colony of Teos, although some called him a Milesian.
He was born in the 80th Olympiad according to Apollodorus of Athens, although Thrasyllus placed his birth in 470 BC, the date is more likely. John Burnet has argued that the date of 460 is "too early" since, according to Diogenes Laërtius ix.41, Democritus said that he was a "young man" during Anaxagoras's old age. It was said that Democritus's father was from a noble family and so wealthy that he received Xerxes on his march through Abdera. Democritus spent the inheritance which his father left him on travels into distant countries, to satisfy his thirst for knowledge, he traveled to Asia, was said to have reached India and Ethiopia. It is known that he wrote on Meroe, he himself declared that among his contemporaries none had made greater journeys, seen more countries, met more scholars than himself. He mentions the Egyptian mathematicians, whose knowledge he praises. Theophrastus, spoke of him as a man who had seen many countries. During his travels, according to Diogenes Laërtius, he became acquainted with the Chaldean magi.
"Ostanes", one of the magi accompanying Xerxes, was said to have taught him. After returning to his native land he occupied himself with natural philosophy, he traveled throughout Greece to acquire a better knowledge of its cultures. He mentions many Greek philosophers in his writings, his wealth enabled him to purchase their writings. Leucippus, the founder of atomism, was the greatest influence upon him, he praises Anaxagoras. Diogenes Laertius says, he may have been acquainted with Socrates, but Plato does not mention him and Democritus himself is quoted as saying, "I came to Athens and no one knew me." Aristotle placed him among the pre-Socratic natural philosophers. The many anecdotes about Democritus in Diogenes Laërtius, attest to his disinterest and simplicity, show that he lived for his studies. One story has him deliberately blinding himself, he was cheerful, was always ready to see the comical side of life, which writers took to mean that he always laughed at the foolishness of people.
He was esteemed by his fellow citizens, because as Diogenes Laërtius says, "he had foretold them some things which events proved to be true," which may refer to his knowledge of natural phenomena. According to Diodorus Siculus, Democritus died at the age of 90, which would put his death around 370 BC, but other writers have him living to 104, or 109. Popularly known as the Laughing Philosopher, the terms Abderitan laughter, which means scoffing, incessant laughter, Abderite, which means a scoffer, are derived from Democritus. To his fellow citizens he was known as "The Mocker". Most sources say that Democritus followed in the tradition of Leucippus and that they carried on the scientific rationalist philosophy associated with Miletus. Both were materialist, believing everything to be the result of natural laws. Unlike Aristotle or Plato, the atomists attempted to explain the world without reasoning as to purpose, prime mover, or final cause. For the atomists questions of physics should be answered with a mechanistic explanation, while their opponents search for explanations which, in addition to the material and mechanistic included the formal and teleological.
Greek historians consider Democritus to have established aesthetics as a subject of investigation and study, as he wrote theoretically on poetry and fine art long before authors such as Aristotle. Thrasyllus identified six works in the philosopher's oeuvre which had belonged to aesthetics as a discipline, but only fragments of the relevant works are extant; the theory of Democritus held that everything is composed of "atoms", which are physically, but not geometrically, indivisible. Of the mass of atoms, Democritus said, "The more any indivisible exceeds, the heavier it is". However, his exact position o
Ancient Greek
The Ancient Greek language includes the forms of Greek used in Ancient Greece and the ancient world from around the 9th century BCE to the 6th century CE. It is roughly divided into the Archaic period, Classical period, Hellenistic period, it is succeeded by medieval Greek. Koine is regarded as a separate historical stage of its own, although in its earliest form it resembled Attic Greek and in its latest form it approaches Medieval Greek. Prior to the Koine period, Greek of the classic and earlier periods included several regional dialects. Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of fifth-century Athenian historians and philosophers, it has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been a standard subject of study in educational institutions of the Western world since the Renaissance. This article contains information about the Epic and Classical periods of the language. Ancient Greek was a pluricentric language, divided into many dialects; the main dialect groups are Attic and Ionic, Aeolic and Doric, many of them with several subdivisions.
Some dialects are found in standardized literary forms used in literature, while others are attested only in inscriptions. There are several historical forms. Homeric Greek is a literary form of Archaic Greek used in the epic poems, the "Iliad" and "Odyssey", in poems by other authors. Homeric Greek had significant differences in grammar and pronunciation from Classical Attic and other Classical-era dialects; the origins, early form and development of the Hellenic language family are not well understood because of a lack of contemporaneous evidence. Several theories exist about what Hellenic dialect groups may have existed between the divergence of early Greek-like speech from the common Proto-Indo-European language and the Classical period, they differ in some of the detail. The only attested dialect from this period is Mycenaean Greek, but its relationship to the historical dialects and the historical circumstances of the times imply that the overall groups existed in some form. Scholars assume that major Ancient Greek period dialect groups developed not than 1120 BCE, at the time of the Dorian invasion—and that their first appearances as precise alphabetic writing began in the 8th century BCE.
The invasion would not be "Dorian" unless the invaders had some cultural relationship to the historical Dorians. The invasion is known to have displaced population to the Attic-Ionic regions, who regarded themselves as descendants of the population displaced by or contending with the Dorians; the Greeks of this period believed there were three major divisions of all Greek people—Dorians and Ionians, each with their own defining and distinctive dialects. Allowing for their oversight of Arcadian, an obscure mountain dialect, Cypriot, far from the center of Greek scholarship, this division of people and language is quite similar to the results of modern archaeological-linguistic investigation. One standard formulation for the dialects is: West vs. non-west Greek is the strongest marked and earliest division, with non-west in subsets of Ionic-Attic and Aeolic vs. Arcadocypriot, or Aeolic and Arcado-Cypriot vs. Ionic-Attic. Non-west is called East Greek. Arcadocypriot descended more from the Mycenaean Greek of the Bronze Age.
Boeotian had come under a strong Northwest Greek influence, can in some respects be considered a transitional dialect. Thessalian had come under Northwest Greek influence, though to a lesser degree. Pamphylian Greek, spoken in a small area on the southwestern coast of Anatolia and little preserved in inscriptions, may be either a fifth major dialect group, or it is Mycenaean Greek overlaid by Doric, with a non-Greek native influence. Most of the dialect sub-groups listed above had further subdivisions equivalent to a city-state and its surrounding territory, or to an island. Doric notably had several intermediate divisions as well, into Island Doric, Southern Peloponnesus Doric, Northern Peloponnesus Doric; the Lesbian dialect was Aeolic Greek. All the groups were represented by colonies beyond Greece proper as well, these colonies developed local characteristics under the influence of settlers or neighbors speaking different Greek dialects; the dialects outside the Ionic group are known from inscriptions, notable exceptions being: fragments of the works of the poet Sappho from the island of Lesbos, in Aeolian, the poems of the Boeotian poet Pindar and other lyric poets in Doric.
After the conquests of Alexander the Great in the late 4th century BCE, a new international dialect known as Koine or Common Greek developed based on Attic Greek, but with influence from other dialects. This dialect replaced most of the older dialects, although Doric dialect has survived in the Tsakonian language, spoken in the region of modern Sparta. Doric has passed down its aorist terminations into most verbs of Demotic Greek. By about the 6th century CE, the Koine had metamorphosized into Medieval Greek. Ancient Macedonian was an Indo-European language at least related to Greek, but its exact relationship is unclear because of insufficient data: a dialect of Greek; the Macedonian dialect (or l
Plutarch
Plutarch named, upon becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus, was a Greek biographer and essayist, known for his Parallel Lives and Moralia. He is classified as a Middle Platonist. Plutarch's surviving works were intended for both Greek and Roman readers. Plutarch was born to a prominent family in the small town of Chaeronea, about 80 kilometres east of Delphi, in the Greek region of Boeotia, his family was wealthy. The name of Plutarch's father has not been preserved, but based on the common Greek custom of repeating a name in alternate generations, it was Nikarchus; the name of Plutarch's grandfather was Lamprias, as he attested in Moralia and in his Life of Antony. His brothers and Lamprias, are mentioned in his essays and dialogues, which speak of Timon in particular in the most affectionate terms. Rualdus, in his 1624 work Life of Plutarchus, recovered the name of Plutarch's wife, from internal evidence afforded by his writings. A letter is still extant, addressed by Plutarch to his wife, bidding her not to grieve too much at the death of their two-year-old daughter, named Timoxena after her mother.
He hinted at a belief in reincarnation in that letter of consolation. The exact number of his sons is not certain, although two of them and the second Plutarch, are mentioned. Plutarch's treatise De animae procreatione in Timaeo is dedicated to them, the marriage of his son Autobulus is the occasion of one of the dinner parties recorded in the "Table Talk". Another person, Soklarus, is spoken of in terms which seem to imply that he was Plutarch's son, but this is nowhere stated, his treatise on marriage questions, addressed to Eurydice and Pollianus, seems to speak of the latter as having been an inmate of his house, but without any clear evidence on whether she was his daughter or not. Plutarch studied mathematics and philosophy at the Academy of Athens under Ammonius from 66 to 67. At some point, Plutarch received Roman citizenship; as evidenced by his new name, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus, his sponsor for citizenship was Lucius Mestrius Florus, a Roman of consular status whom Plutarch used as a historical source for his Life of Otho.
He lived most of his life at Chaeronea, was initiated into the mysteries of the Greek god Apollo. For many years Plutarch served as one of the two priests at the temple of Apollo at Delphi, the site of the famous Delphic Oracle, twenty miles from his home. By his writings and lectures Plutarch became a celebrity in the Roman Empire, yet he continued to reside where he was born, participated in local affairs serving as mayor. At his country estate, guests from all over the empire congregated for serious conversation, presided over by Plutarch in his marble chair. Many of these dialogues were recorded and published, the 78 essays and other works which have survived are now known collectively as the Moralia. In addition to his duties as a priest of the Delphic temple, Plutarch was a magistrate at Chaeronea and he represented his home town on various missions to foreign countries during his early adult years. Plutarch held the office of archon in his native municipality only an annual one which he served more than once.
He undertook the humblest of duties. The Suda, a medieval Greek encyclopedia, states that Emperor Trajan made Plutarch procurator of Illyria. However, most historians consider this unlikely, since Illyria was not a procuratorial province, Plutarch did not speak Illyrian. According to the 8th/9th-century historian George Syncellus, late in Plutarch's life, Emperor Hadrian appointed him nominal procurator of Achaea – which entitled him to wear the vestments and ornaments of a consul. Plutarch spent the last thirty years of his life serving as a priest in Delphi, he thus connected part of his literary work with the sanctuary of Apollo, the processes of oracle-giving and the personalities who lived or traveled there. One of his most important works is the "Why Pythia does not give oracles in verse". More important is the dialogue "On the E in Delphi", which features Ammonius, a Platonic philosopher and teacher of Plutarch, Lambrias, Plutarch's brother. According to Ammonius, the letter E written on the temple of Apollo in Delphi originated from the following fact: the wise men of antiquity, whose maxims were written on the walls of the vestibule of the temple, were not seven but five: Chilon, Thales and Pittakos.
However, the tyrants Cleobulos and Periandros used their political power in order to be incorporated in the list. Thus, the E, which corresponds to number 5, constituted an acknowledgment that the Delphic maxims originated from the five real wise men; the portrait of a philosopher exhibited at the exit of the Archaeological Museum of Delphi, dating to the 2nd century AD, had been in the past identified with Plutarch. The man, although bearded, is depicted at a young age, his hair and beard are rendered in thin incisions. The gaze is due to the heavy eyelids and the incised pupils; the portrait is no longer thought to represent Plutarch. But a fragmentary hermaic stele next to the portrait did once bear a portrait of Plutarch, since it is inscribed, "The Delphians along with the Chaeroneans dedicated this to Plutarch, following the precepts of the Amphictyony". Plutarc
Isaac Casaubon
Isaac Casaubon was a classical scholar and philologist, first in France and later in England, regarded by many of his time as the most learned man in Europe. His son Méric Casaubon was a classical scholar, he was born in Geneva to two French Huguenot refugees. The family returned to France after the Edict of Saint-Germain in 1562, settled at Crest in Dauphiné, where Arnaud Casaubon, Isaac's father, became minister of a Huguenot congregation; until he was nineteen, Isaac had no education other than that given him by his father. Arnaud was away from home for long periods in the Calvinist camp, the family fled to the hills to hide from bands of armed Catholics who patrolled the country, it was in a cave in the mountains of Dauphiné, after the massacre of St Bartholomew, that Isaac received his first lesson in Greek, from the textbook Isocrates ad Demonicum. At the age of nineteen Isaac was sent to the Academy of Geneva, where he read Greek under Franciscus Portus, a Cretan. Portus died in 1581, recommending Casaubon only twenty-two, as his successor.
He remained at Geneva as professor of Greek until 1596. There he married twice, his second wife being Florence Estienne, daughter of the scholar-printer Henri Estienne. At Geneva, Casaubon lacked example and assistance and struggled against the troops of the Catholic dukes of Savoy, but became a consummate Greek and classical scholar, he spent all the money he could spare on books, including copying classics that were not in print. Though Henri Estienne, Theodore de Beza, Jacques Lect, were men of superior learning, they had no time for Casaubon. Casaubon sought help by cultivating the acquaintance of foreign scholars, as Geneva, the metropolis of Calvinism, received a constant stream of visitors, he met Henry Wotton, a poet and diplomat, who lodged with him and borrowed his money. More he met Richard Thomson, fellow of Clare College and through Thomson came to the attention of Joseph Scaliger. Scaliger and Casaubon first exchanged letters in 1594, they never met, but kept up a lengthy correspondence that shows their growing admiration and friendship.
Influential French men of letters, the Protestant Jacques Bongars, the Catholic Jacques de Thou, the Catholic convert Philippe Canaye endeavoured to get Casaubon invited to France. In 1596, they succeeded, Casaubon accepted a post at the University of Montpellier, with the titles of conseiller du roi and professeur stipendié aux langues et bonnes lettres, he stayed there with several prolonged absences. He was poorly paid by the university authorities. Casaubon began to see the editing of Greek books as a more suitable job for him. At Geneva he had produced some notes on Diogenes Laërtius and the New Testament, he debuted as an editor with a complete edition of Strabo, of which he was so ashamed afterwards that he apologized to Scaliger for it. This was followed by the text of Polyaenus, an editio princeps, 1589, his edition of Theophrastus's Characteres, is the first example of his peculiar style of illustrative commentary, at once apposite and profuse. When he left for Montpellier he was engaged upon his magnum opus, his editing of and commentary on Athenaeus.
In 1598 Casaubon was at Lyon. Here he lived in the house of Méric de Vicq, surintendant de la justice, a liberal-minded Catholic. Accompanied by de Vicq, Casaubon visited Paris, where he was presented to King Henry IV of France; the king said something about employing Casaubon's services in the "restoration" of the fallen University of Paris. In January 1599, he received a summons to return to Paris, but the terms of the letter were so vague that Casaubon hesitated to act on it. However, he resigned his chair at Montpellier, he stayed another year at Lyon with de Vicq, where he hoped to meet the king, expected to visit the south. Nothing more was heard about the professorship, but instead De Vicq summoned him to Paris for important business: the Fontainebleau Conference. Casaubon was persuaded to sit as a referee on the challenge sent to Du Plessis Mornay by Cardinal Duperron. By so doing he placed himself in a false position, as Joseph Scaliger said: "Non debebat Casaubon interesse colloquio Plessiaeano.
"Casaubon ought not to have been involved in the conference about Du Plessis. The issue was contrived. By concurring with this decision, Casaubon confirmed the Protestants' suspicions that, like his friend and patron, Philippe Canaye, he was contemplating abjuration. From on, he became the object of the hopes and fears of the two religions. Neither side could understand that Casaubon's reading of the church fathers led him to adopt an intermediate position between Genevan Calvinism and Ultramontanism. Meanwhile, the king repeated his invitation to Casaubon to settle in Paris, gave him a pension. No more was said about the university; the recent reform of the University of Paris closed its doors to all but Catholics.
Jacques Daléchamps
Jacques Daléchamps was a French botanist and physician. When the scholar Isaac Casaubon first established the Greek text of the rediscovered Deipnosophistae, it was printed alongside a Latin translation by Daléchamps. Histoire generale des plantes Bd.1-2. Lyon 1615 Digital edition by the University and State Library Düsseldorf Schmitt, Charles B.. "Daléchamps, Jacques". Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 3. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Pp. 533–534. ISBN 978-0-684-10114-9
Erasistratus
Erasistratus was a Greek anatomist and royal physician under Seleucus I Nicator of Syria. Along with fellow physician Herophilus, he founded a school of anatomy in Alexandria, where they carried out anatomical research, he is credited for his description of the valves of the heart, he concluded that the heart was not the center of sensations, but instead it functioned as a pump. Erasistratus was among the first to distinguish between arteries, he believed that the arteries were full of air and that they carried the "animal spirit". He considered atoms to be the essential body element, he believed they were vitalized by the pneuma that circulated through the nerves, he thought that the nerves moved a nervous spirit from the brain. He differentiated between the function of the sensory and motor nerves, linked them to the brain, he is credited with one of the first in-depth descriptions of the cerebellum. Erasistratus is supposed to have been born at Ioulis on the island of Ceos, though Stephanus of Byzantium refers to him as a native of Cos.
Pliny says he was the grandson of Aristotle by his daughter Pythias, but this is not confirmed by any other ancient writer. From the latter it is not quite clear whether Cleombrotus was his uncle, he was a pupil of Chrysippus of Cnidos and Theophrastus. He lived for some time at the court of Seleucus I Nicator, where he acquired great reputation by discovering the disease of Antiochus I Soter, the king's eldest son 294 BC. Seleucus in his old age had married Stratonice, the young and beautiful daughter of Demetrius Poliorcetes, she had borne him one child. Antiochus fell violently in love with his mother-in-law, but did not disclose his passion, chose rather to pine away in silence; the physicians were quite unable to discover the cause and nature of his disease, Erasistratus himself was at a loss at first, finding nothing amiss about his body, he began to suspect that it must be his mind, diseased, that he might be in love. Erasistratus confirmed his conjecture when he observed that the skin of Antiochus grew hotter, his colour deeper, his pulse quicker whenever Stratonice came near him, while none of these symptoms occurred on any other occasion.
Accordingly, he told Seleucus that his son's disease was incurable, for he was in love, that it was impossible to gratify his passion. The king wondered what the obstacle could be, asked who the lady was. "My wife," replied Erasistratus. The physician asked him if he would do so himself if it were his wife that the prince was in love with; the king protested. Seleucus was as good as his word, not only gave up Stratonice, but resigned to his son several provinces of his empire; this celebrated story is told with variations by many ancient authors, a similar anecdote has been told of Hippocrates, Galen and Panacius and Acestinus. If this is the anecdote referred to by Pliny, as is the case, Erasistratus is said to have received one hundred talents for being the means of restoring the prince to health, which would amount to one of the largest medical fees upon record. Little more is known of the personal history of Erasistratus: he lived for some time at Alexandria, at that time beginning to be a celebrated medical school, gave up practice in his old age, that he might pursue his anatomical studies without interruption.
He and fellow physician Herophilus practiced anatomy with great success, with such ardour that they are supposed to have dissected criminals alive. Erasistratus appears to have died in Asia Minor, as the Suda mentions that he was buried by mount Mycale in Ionia; the exact date of his death is not known, but he lived to a good old age, as, according to Eusebius, he was alive 258 BC, about forty years after the marriage of Antiochus and Stratonice. He had numerous pupils and followers, a medical school bearing his name continued to exist at Smyrna in Ionia nearly till the time of Strabo, about the beginning of the 1st century; the following are the names of the most celebrated physicians belonging to the sect founded by him: Apoemantes, Apollonius Memphites, Apollophanes Artemidoras, Chrysippus, Heraclides of Smyrna, Hicesius, Menodorus, Strato, Xenophon. An attack on Erasistratus and his followers is preserved in Anonymus Londinensis. Erasistratus wrote many works on anatomy, practical medicine and pharmacy, of which only the titles remain, together with a great number of short fragments preserved by Galen, Caelius Aurelianus, other ancient writers.
These, are sufficient to enable us to form a reasonable idea of his opinions both as a physician and an anatomist. It is as an anatomist that he is most celebrated, there is not one ancient physician that did more to promote that branch of medical science than he, he appears to have been near the discovery of the circulation of the blood, for in a passage preserved by Galen he says: The vein arises from the part where the arteries, that are distributed to the whole body, have their origin, penetrates to the sanguineous ventricle.
