Listed 9 sub titles with search on: Biographies for wider area of: "ADANA Province TURKEY" .
ANAZARVOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
A Greek physician and man of science. He flourished about the middle of the first century A.D., and was the author of a work De Materia Medica (Peri Hules Iatrikes) in five books. For nearly 1700 years this book was the chief authority for students of botany and the science of healing. Two short essays on specifics against vegetable and animal poisons (Alexipharmaca and Theriaca) are appended to it as the sixth and seventh books; but these are probably from the hand of a later Dioscorides of Alexandria. A work on family medicine is also attributed to him, but is not genuine.
Dioscorides, (Dioskorides). A Greek physician and man of science. He flourished about the middle of the first century A.D., and was the author of a work De Materia Medica (Peri Hules Iatrikes) in five books. For nearly 1700 years this book was the chief authority for students of botany and the science of healing. Two short essays on specifics against vegetable and animal poisons (Alexipharmaca and Theriaca) are appended to it as the sixth and seventh books; but these are probably from the hand of a later Dioscorides of Alexandria. A work on family medicine is also attributed to him, but is not genuine. The Materia Medica has been edited by Sprengel (1829-30).
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Dioscorides. Pedacius or Pedanius (Pedakios or Pedanios) Dioscorides, the author
of the celebrated Treatise on Materia Medica, that bears his name. It is generally
supposed, says Dr. Bostock, that he was a native of Anazarba, in Cilicia Campestris,
and that he was a physician by profession. It appears pretty evident, that he
lived in the first or second century of the Christian era, and as he is not mentioned
by Pliny, it has been supposed that he was a little posterior to him. The exact
age of Dioscorides has. however, been a question of much critical discussion.
and we have nothing but conjecture which can lead us to decide upon it. He has
left behind him a Treatise on Materia Medica, Peri Hgles Iatrikes. in five books,
a work of great labour and research, and which for many ages was received as a
standard production. The greater correctness of modern science, and the new discoveries
which have been made, cause it now to be regarded rather as a work of curiosity
than of absolute utility; but in drawing up a history of the state and progress
of medicine, it affords a most valuable document for our information. His treatise
consists of a description of all the articles then used in medicine, with an account
of their supposed virtues. The descriptions are brief, and not unfrequently so
little characterized as not to enable us to ascertain with any degree of accuracy
to what they refer; while the practical part of his work is in a great measure
empirical, although his general principles (so far as they can be detected) appear
to be those of the Dogmatic sect. The great importance which was for so long a
period attached to the works of Dioscorides, has rendered them the subject of
almost innumerable commentaries and criticisms, and even some of the most learned
of our modern naturalists have not thought it an unworthy task to attempt the
illustration of his Materia Medica. Upon the whole, we must attribute to him the
merit of great industry and patient research; and it seems but just to ascribe
a large portion of the errors and inaccuracies into which he has fallen, more
to the imperfect state of science when he wrote, than to any defect in the character
and talents of the writer.
His work has been compared with that of Theophrastus, but this seems
to be doing justice to neither party, as the objects of the two authors were totally
different, the one writing as a scientific botanist, the other merely as a herbalist;
and accordingly we find each of these celebrated men superior to the other in
his own department. With respect to the ancient writers on Materia Medica who
succeeded Dioscorides, they were generally content to quote his authority without
presuming to correct his errors or supply his deficiencies. That part of his work
which relates to the plants growing in Greece has been very much illustrated by
the late Dr. John Sibthorp, who, when he was elected one of the Radcliffe Travelling
Fellows of the University of Oxford, travelled in Greece and the neighbouring
parts for the purpose of collecting materials for a " Flora Graeca."
This magnificent work was begun after his death, under the direction of the late
Sir J. E. Smith (1806), and has been lately finished, in ten volumes folio, by
Professor Lindley. With respect to the plants and other productions of the East
mentioned by Dioscorides, much still remains to be done towards their illustration,
and identification with the articles met with in those countries in the present
day. A few specimens of this are given by Dr. Royle, in his " Essay on the
Antiquity of Hindoo Medicine" (Lond. 8vo. 1837), and probably no man in England
is more fitted to undertake the task than himself.
Besides the celebrated treatise on Materia Medica, the following works
are generally attributed to Dioscorides: Peri Deleterion Pharmakon, De Venenis;
Peri Iobolon, De Venenatis Animalibus; Peri Eu'poriston Haplon te kai Suntheton
Pharmakon, De facile Parabilibus tam Simplicibus qnam Compositis Medicamentis;
and a few smaller works, which are considered spurious. His works first appeared
in a Latin translation (supposed to be by Petrus de Abano) in 1478, fol. Colle,
in black letter. The first Greek edition was published by Aldus Manutius, Venet.
1499, fol., and is said to be very scarce. Perhaps the most valuable edition is
that by J. A. Saracenus, Greek and Latin, Francof. 1598. fol., with a copious
and learned commentary. The last edition is that by C. Sprengel, in two vols.
8vo. Lips. 1829, 1830, in Greek and Latin, with a useful commentary, forming the
twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth vols. of Kuhn's Collection of the Greek Medical
Writers. The work of Dioscorides has been translated and published in the Italian,
German, Spanish, and French languages; there is also an Arabic Translation, which
is still in MS. in several European libraries.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Born in Anazarbus (today's Turkey),
this Greek physician wrote a text on botany and pharmacology free from superstition,
De Materia Medica (“On Medical Matters”).
Dioscorides served in Nero's armies as botanist.
This text is cited Sept 2003 from the In2Greece URL below.
EGEA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Antiochus (Antiochos), of Aegae in Cilicia, a sophist, or as he himself pretended
to be, a Cynic philosopher. He flourished about A. D. 200, during the reign of
Severus and Caracalla. He belonged to a distinguished family, some members of
which were afterwards raised to the consulship at Rome. He took no part in the
political affairs of his native place, but with his large property, which was
increased by the liberality of the emperors, he was enabled to support and relieve
his fellow-citizens whenever it was needed. He used to spend his nights in the
temple of Asclepius, partly on account of the dreams and the communications with
the god in them, and partly on account of the conversation of other persons who
likewise spent their nights there without being able to sleep. During the war
of Caracalla against the Parthians he was at first of some service to the Roman
army by his Cynic mode of life, but afterwards he deserted to the Parthians together
with Tiridates. Antiochus was one of the most distinguished rhetoricians of his
time. He was a pupil of Dardanus, the Assyrian, and Dionysius, the Milesian. He
used to speak extempore, and his declamations and orations were distinguished
for their pathos, their richness in thought, and the precision of their style,
which had nothing of the pomp and bombast of other rhetoricians. But he also acquired
some reputation as a writer. Philostratus mentions an historical work of his (historia)
which is praised for the elegance of its style, but what was the subject of this
history is unknown. Phrynichus refers to a work of his called Agora. (Philostr.
Vit. Soph. ii. 4. 5.4; Dion Cass. lxxvii. 19; Suidas, s. v. ; Eudoc.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
MALLOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Crates (Krates), of Mallus in Cilicia, the son of Timocrates, is said by Suidas
to have been a Stoic philosopher, but is far better known as one of the most distinguished
of the ancient Greek grammarians. He lived in the reign of Ptolemy Philometor,
and was contemporary with Aristarchus, in rivalry with whom he supported the fame
of the Pergamene school of grammar against the Alexandrian, and the system of
anomaly (anomalia) against that of analogy (analogia). He is said by Varro to
have derived his grammatical system from a certain Chrysippus, who left six books
peri tes anomalias. He was born at Mallus in Cilicia, and was brought up at Tarsus,
whence he removed to Pergamus, and there lived under the patronage of Eumenes
II. and Attalus II. He was the founder of the Pergamene school of grammar, and
seems to have been at one time the chief librarian. About the year 157 B. C.,
shortly after the death of Ennius, Crates was sent by Attalus as an ambassador
to Rome, where he introduced for the first time the study of grammar. The results
of his visit lasted a long time, as may be observed especially in the writings
of Varro. An accident, by which he broke a leg, gave him the leisure, which his
official duties might otherwise have interrupted, for holding frequent grammatical
lectures (akroaseis). We know nothing further of the life of Crates.
In the grammatical system of Crates a strong distinction was made
between criticism and grammar, the latter of which sciences he regarded as quite
subordinate to the former. The office of the critic, according to Crates, was
to investigate everything which could throw light upon literature, either from
within or from without; that of the grammarian was only to apply the rules of
language to clear up the meaning of particular passages, and to settle the text,
the prosody, the accentuation, and so forth, of the ancient writers. From this
part of his system, Crates derived the surname of Koitikos. This title is derived
by some from the fact that, like Aristarchus, Crates gave the greatest attention
to the Homeric poems, from his labours upon which he was also surnamed Homerikos.
His chief work is entitled Diorthosis Iliados kai Odusseias, in nine books, by
which we are probably to understand, not a recension of the Homeric poems, dividing
them into nine books, but that the commentary of Crates itself was divided into
nine books.
The few fragments of this commentary, which are preserved by the Scholiasts
and other ancient writers, have led Wolf to express a very unfavourable opinion
of Crates. As to his emendations, it must be admitted that he was far inferior
to Aristarchus in judgment, but it is equally certain that he was most ingenious
in conjectural emendations. Several of his readings are to this day preferred
by the best scholars to those of Aristarchus. As for his excursions into all the
scientific and historical questions for which Homer furnishes an occasion, it
was the direct consequence of his opinion of the critic's office, that he should
undertake them, nor do the results of his inquiries quite deserve the contempt
with which Wolf treats them. Among the ancients themselves he enjoyed a reputation
little, if at all, inferior to that of Aristarchus. The school which he founded
at Pergamus flourished a considerable time, and was the subject of a work by Ptolemy
of Ascalon, entitled peri tes Krateteiou haireseos. To this school Wolf refers
the catalogues of ancient writers which are mentioned by Dionysius of Halicarnassus
(en tois Pergamenois pinaxi, ii.), who also mentions the school by the name of
tous ek Pergamou grammatikous. They are also called Krateteioi. Among the catalogues
mentioned by Dionysius there can be no doubt that we ought to include the lists
of titles (anagraphai) of dramas, which Athenaeus (viii. p. 336, c.) states to
have been composed by the Pergamenes.
Besides his work on Homer, Crates wrote commentaries on the Theogony
of Hesiod, on Euripides, on Aristophanes, and probably on other ancient authors,
a work on the Attic dialect (peri Attikes dialektou), and works on geography,
natural history, and agriculture, of all which only a few fragments exist. Some
scholars, however, think, that the Crates of Pergamus, whose work on the wonders
of various countries is quoted by Pliny (H. N. vii. 2) and Aelian (H. A. xvii.
9), was a different person. The fragments of his works are collected by C. F.
Wegener (De Aula Attalica Litt. Artiumque Fautrice, Havn. 1836). There is also
one epigram by him in the Greek Anthology upon Choerilus. This epigram is assigned
to Crates on the authority of its title, Kratetos grammatikou. But Diogenes Laertius
mentions an epigrammatic poet of the name, as distinct from the grammarian.
(Suidas, s. v. Krates, Aristarchos; Diog. Laert. iv. 23; Strabo; Athen. xi.; Varro,
de L. L. viii. 64, 68, ix. 1; Sext. Empir. adv. Math. i. c. 3.79, c. 12. 248;
Sc/hol. in Hom. passim; Plin. H. N. iv).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
ANAZARVOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
(Oppianos). A Greek didactic poet of Anazarbus, in Cilicia.
In the second half of the second century A.D., under the emperor Marcus Aurelius,
he composed a didactic poem Halieutica (Halieutika), in five books, on the habits
of fishes and the method of capturing them. It is written in an ornate, though
often bombastic, style.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
This file forms part of A Hellenistic Bibliography, a bibliography on post-classical Greek poetry and its influence, accessible through the website of the department of Classics of the University of Leiden.
The file contains ca. 90 titles on Oppian of Cilicia and Oppian of Apamea, listed by year/author.
Compiled and maintained by Martijn Cuypers
Email: m.p.cuypers@let.leidenuniv.nl
Additions and corrections will be gratefully received.
Last updated: 3 july 2002
MALLOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
Dionysades or Dionysides (Dionusiades, Dionusides). Of Mallus in Cilicia, a tragic poet, of whom nothing more is known. (Suid. s. v.)
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