Page:History of Greece Vol IV.djvu/271

 DEMOKEDES OF KROTON. 258 last husband, 1 as well as in that of her son, and filled no incon- siderable space even in Grecian imagination, as we may see both by ^Eschylus and Herodotus. Had her influence prevailed, the first conquering appetites of Darius would have been directed, not against the steppes of Scythia, but against Attica and Pelo- ponnesus ; at least, so Herodotus assures us. The grand object of the latter in his history is to set forth the contentions of Hellas with the barbarians or non-Hellenic world ; and with an art truly epical, which manifests itself everywhere to the careful reader of his nine books, he preludes to the real dangers which were averted at Marathon and Plattea, by recounting the first conception of an invasion of Greece by the Persians, how it originated, and how it was abandoned. For this purpose, according to his historical style, wherein general facts are set forth as subordinate and explanatory accompaniments to the ad- ventures of particular persons, he give us the interesting, but romantic, history of the Krotoniate surgeon Demokedes. Demokedes, son of a citizen of Kroton named Kalliphon, had turned his attention in early youth to the study and practice of medicine and surgery (for that age, we can make no difference between the two), and had made considerable progress in it. His youth coincides nearly with the arrival of Pythagoras at Kroton, (550 - 520,) where the science of the surgeon, as well as the art of the gymnastic trainer, seem to have been then prosecuted more actively than in any part of Greece. His father Kalliphon, however, was a man of such severe temper, that the son ran away from him, and resolved to maintain himself by his talents elsewhere. He went to ^Egina, and began to practice in his pro- fession ; and so rapid was his success, even in his first year, though very imperfectly equipped with instruments and appara- tus, 2 that the citizens of the island made a contract with him to remain there for one year, at a salary of one talent (about 1 Hcrodot. vii, 3. ij jup "A roaaa el%e rd TTUV /cparof . Compare the de- floiption given of the ascendency of the savage Sultana Parysatis over her Sen Artaxerxes Mnemon (Plutarch, Artaxerxcs, c. 16, 19, 23). 1 Kerodot. iii, 131. uanevfic irep tuv, no! i%uv ovdsv ruv oaa Tfp< rr/v rrxvTjv EfiTiv kpyal.riia. the description refers to surgical rather than to tnedical practice. That curious assemblage of the cases of particular patients with remarks,