Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/400

Rh 382 ASCLEPIADES. history and of his practice, it would appear that he may be fairly characterized as a man of natural tiilents, acquainted with human nature (or rather with human weakness), possessed of considerable shrewdness and address, but with little science or professional skill. He began (upon the plan which is so generally found successful by those who are conscious of their own ignorance) by vilifying the principles and practice of his predecessors, and by asserting that he had discovered a more compen- dious and effective mode of treating diseases than had been before known to the world. As he was ignorant of anatomy and pathology, he decried the labours of those who sought to investigate the structure of the body, or to watch the phenomena of disease, and he is said to have directed his attacks more particularly agJiinst the writings of Hippocrates. It appears, however, that he had the discretion to refrain from the use of very active and powerful remedies, and to trust principally to the efficacy of diet, exercise, bathing, and other circumstances of this nature. A part of the great popularity which he enjoyed depended upon his prescribing the liberal use of wine to his patients ( Plin. //. N. vii. 37, xxiii. 22), and upon his not only attending in all cases, with great assiduity, to everj'thing which contributed to their comfort, but also upon his flattering their prejudices and indulg- ing their inclinations. By the due application of these means, and from the state of the people among whom he practised, we may, without much difficulty, account for the great eminence at which he arrived, and we cannot fail to recognise in Asclepiades the prototype of more than one popular physician of modem times. Justice, however, obliges us to admit, that he seems to have pos- sessed a considerable share of acuteness and dis- cernment, which on some occasions he employed with advantage. It is probable that to him we are indebted, in the first instance, for the arrangement of diseases into the two great classes of Acute and Chronic (Gael. Aurel. De Morb. Chron. iii. 8. p. 469), a division which has a real foundation in nature, and which still forms an important feature in the most improved modem nosology. In his philosophical principles Asclepiades is said to have been a follower of Epicurus, and to have adopted his doctrine of atoms and pores, on which he attempted to build a new theory of disease, by supposing that all morbid action might be reduced into obstruction of the pores and irregular distri- bution of the atoms. This theory he accommodated to his division of diseases, the acute being supposed to depend essentially upon a constriction of the pores, or an obstraction of them by a superfluity of atoms ; the chronic, upon a relaxation of the pores or a deficiency of the atoms. Nothing remains of his writings but a few fi*agments, which have been collected and published by Gunipcrt in the little work mentioned above. There is a poem con- taining directions respecting health {vyi^iva irapay- •yeX{xara) which is ascribed to Asclepiades of Bi- thynia, and which was first published by R. von Welz, Wlirzberg, 1842 ; but a writer in the Rhei- nisches Mtiseuia (p. 444 in the vol. of 1848) has shewn, that this poem could not have been written before the seventh century after Christ. The age at which Asclepiades died and the date of his death are unknown ; but it is said that he laid a wager with Fortime, engaging to forfeit his character as a physician if he should ever suffer ASCLEPIODORUS. from any disease himself. Plin^-, who tells the anecdote {H. N. vii. 37), adds, that he won his wager, for that he reached a great age and died at last from an accident. Further information respecting the medical and philosophical opinions of Asclepiades may be found in SprengePs Hist, de la Med. ; Isensee, Gesch. der Alcd. ; Ant. Cocchi, Discorso Primo sopra Asclepiade, Firenze, 1758, 4to. ; G. F. Bianchini, La Medicina dP Asclepiades per ben curare le Malattie Acute, raccolta da Varii Frammenti Gred e Latini, Venezia, 1769, 4to. ; K. F. Burdach, Asclepiades und John Brown, eine Parallele, Leipzig, 1800, 8vo. ; Id. Scriptorum de Asclepiade Index, Lips. 1800, 4to. ; Bostock's Hist, of Med., from which work part of the preceding account has been taken. 2. ASCLEPI-ADES PhaRMACION (^apfXOLKluv) Ot Junior, a physician who must have lived at the end of the first or the beginning of the second century after Christ, as he quotes Andromachus, Dioscorides, and Scibonius Largus (Gal.De Compos. Medicam. sec. Locos, vii. 2, x. 2, vol. xiii. pp. 51, 53, 342 ; De Compos. Medicam. sec. Gen. vii. 6, vol. xiii. p. 968), and is himself quoted by Ga- len. He derived his surname of Pluirmacion from his skill and knowledge of pharmacy, on which subject he wrote a work in ten books, five on ex- ternal remedies, and five on internal. (Gal. ihid. vol. xiii. p. 442.) Galen quotes this work very frequently, and generally with approbation. 3. M. Artorius Asclepiades. [Artorius.] 4. Asclepiades Philophvsicus (*iA.o^u(n/cor), a physician, who must have lived some time in or before the second century after Christ, as he is quoted by Giilen, who has preserved some of his medical formulae. (Z>e Compos. Medicam. sec. Lo- cos, vii. 5, viii. 5, vol xiii. pp. 102, 179.) 5. L. ScRiDONius Asclepiades, whose name occurs in' a Latin inscription of unknown date, is supposed by Rhodius (ad Scrib. Larg. p. 4) to be Scribonius Largus Designatianus [Largus], but this is very doubtful. 6. Asclepiades Titiensis, a physician, who must have lived in or before the second century after Christ, as he is quoted by Caelius Aurelianus. {De Morb. A cut. iii. 5, p. 201.) 7. Asclepiades Junior (d Neon-epos), a phy- sician quoted by Galen {De Compos. Medicam. sec. Locos, i. 1. vol. xii. p. 410), who is the same per- son as Asclepiades Pharmacion. 8. Areius Asclepiades ("Apetos) is some- times inserted in the list of physicians of the name of Asclepiades, but this appears to be a mistake, as in the passage of Galen where the names occur {De Compos. Medicam. sec. Locos, viii. 5. vol. xiii. p. 1 82) instead of 'Apeiov 'AaKhrfTridSov we should probably read 'Apet'ou 'Ao-K/j7rio5etou. [Areius.] 9. M. Gallus Asclepiades seems to be a similar mistake, as in Galen, De Compos. Medicam. sec. Locos, viii. 5, vol. xiii. p. 179, instead of FaWov MapKov rod "'AaKArjiridSov we should pro- bably read rdWov MdpKOv tqv ''AaKr)TnaSeiov. [Gallus.J There are several other phj'sicians of the name of Asclepiades mentioned in inscriptions, of whom nothing worth recording is known. A list of them is given in the works mentioned above. ["NV.A.G.] ASCLEPIODO'RUS ('Ao-KATjTTjJSwpos). 1. A Macedonian, son of Timander, was one of the ge- nerals of Alexander the Great, and after the con- quest of Syria was appointed by Alexander satrap