Philistion of Locri

Philistion of Locri (Greek: Φιλιστίων) was a physician and writer on medicine who lived in the 4th century BC.

He was a native of Locri in Italy,[1] but was also referred to as "the Sicilian."[2] He was tutor to the physician Chrysippus of Cnidos,[3] and the astronomer and physician Eudoxus,[4] and therefore must have lived in the 4th century BC. He was one of those who defended the opinion that what is drunk goes into the lungs.[5] Some ancient writers attributed to Philistion the treatise De Salubri Victus Ratione,[6] and also the De Victus Ratione,[7] both of which form part of the Hippocratic collection. By some persons he was considered one of the founders of the Empiric school.[8] He wrote a work on materia medica,[9] and on Cookery,[10] and is several times quoted by Pliny,[11] and Galen.[12] Oribasius attributes to him the invention of a machine for restoring dislocations of the humerus.[13]

A brother of Philistion, who was also a physician, but whose name is not known, is quoted by Caelius Aurelianus.[14]

Notes

  1. ^ Galen, De Meth. Med.. i. 1, vol. x; Rufus of Ephesus, De Corp. Hum. Part. Appell.; Plutarch, Symposium, vii. i. 3; Aulus Gellius, xvii. 11. 3
  2. ^ Diogenes Laertius, viii. 86, 89
  3. ^ Diogenes Laertius, viii. 89
  4. ^ Callimachus ap. Diogenes Laertius, viii. 86
  5. ^ Plutarch, Symposium, vii. i. 3; Aulus Gellius, xvii. 11. 3
  6. ^ Galen, Comment. in Hippocr. De Rat. Vict. in Morb. Acut., i. 17, vol xv., Comment. in Hippocr. Aphor., vi. 1, vol. xviii. pt. i.
  7. ^ Galen, De Aliment. Facult., i. 1. vol. vi.
  8. ^ De Subfig. Empir., c. 1, vol. ii
  9. ^ Galen, De Succed., init. vol. xix.
  10. ^ Athenaeus, xii. 516
  11. ^ Pliny, H. N. xx. 15, 34, 48
  12. ^ Galen, De Nat. Facult., ii. 8, vol. ii., De Usu Respir., c. 1, vol. iv., De Meth. Med.. i. 3, ii. 5, vol. x.
  13. ^ Oribasius, De Machinam., c. 4
  14. ^ Caelius Aurelianus, De Morb. Chron., iii. 8, v. 1

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1870).