A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

1052 DIOSCORIDES.
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 ben 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: iHepi AAcr7T7pipwv,apuacwva, De Venenis;
Iepi 'Iop/o'Awv, De Venenatis Aninmalibus; IHep EdTropie-rWV 'AcrA(V T- Kial t vvOTWE'v 'apýidaCl, De
facile Parabilibs tam Simplicibus quam 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 Kiihn'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. For further information respecting Dioscorides and the editions of his work, see Le Clerc,
Hist. de la MiEd.; Haller, Biblioth. Botan.; Sprengel,
Htist. de la 1 Md.; Fabric. Biblioth. Graeca; Bostock's History of Medicine; Choulant, Handbuchl
der Bilcherkundefiir die Aeltere Medicin.
2. DIOSCORIDES PHACAS (IPaKos) a physician
who was one of the followers of Herophilus (Galen,
Gloss. Hippocr. prooem. vol. xix. p. 63), and lived
in the second or first century B. c. According to
Suidas (s. v. Atoowc.), who, however, confounds him
with Dioscorides of Anazarba, he lived at the court of
Cleopatra in the time of Antony, B. c. 41-30, and
was surnamed Phacas on account of the moles or
freckles on his face. He is probably the same physician who is mentioned by Galen (Gloss. Hippocr.
s. e. 'IvSIucv, vol. xix. p. 105), and Paulus Aegi

DIOSCURI.
neta (De Re Med. iv. 24), as a native-of Alexandria.
He wrote several medical works, which are not now
extant. (Suid. 1. c.; Erotian. Gloss. Hippocr. p. 8.)
3. DIOSCORIDES, a Grammarian at Rome, who,
if not actually a physician, appears, at any rate, to
have given great attention to medical literature. He
lived in the beginning of the second century after
Christ, probably in the reign of Hadrian, A. D.
117-138, and superintended an edition of the
works of Hippocrates, which was much esteemed.
He is, however, accused by Galen of having made
considerable alterations in the text, and of changing
the old readings and modernizing the language.
He was a relation of Artemidorus Capito, another
editor of Hippocrates, and is several times quoted
by Galen. (Galen, Comrment. in Hippocr. " DeNt.
Hom." i. 1; ii. 1, vol. xv. pp. 21, 110; Comnent. in
Hippocr. " De Humor." i. prooem. vol. xvi. p. 2;
Comment. in Hippocr. "Epidem. VI." i. prooem. vol.
xvii. part i. p. 795; Gloss. Hippocr. in v. dmrespdaro-ero, vol. xix. p. 83.) [W. A. G.]
DIOSCO'RIUS (AtlooKdpios) of Myra, was the
instructor in grammar of the daughters of the emperor Leo, at Byzantium, and also prefect of the
city and of the praetorians. (Suid. s. v.) [P. S.]
DIO'SCORUS (AirdKopos). 1. A physician,
probably born at Tralles in Lydia, in the sixth
century after Christ. His father's name was
Stephanus, who was a physician (Alex. Trall. de
Re Med. iv. 1, p. 198); one of his brothers was
the physician Alexander Trallianus; another was
the architect and mathematician, Anthemius; and
Agathias mentions that his two other brothers,
Metrodorus and Olympius, were both eminent in
their several professions. (Hist. v. p. 149.)
2. Another physician of the same name, must
have lived some time in or before the second century after Christ, as one of his medical formulae is
quoted by Galen. (De Compos. Jhedicam. sec.
Locos, viii. 7, vol. xiii. p. 204.) [W. A.G.]
DIOSCURUS, a togatus of the praetorian
forum, was one of the commission of ten appointed
by Justinian in A. D. 528, to compile the Constitutionum Codex. (Const. Haec quae necessario, ~ 1,
Const. Sumnna Reip. ~ 2.) [J. T. G.]
DIOSCU'RI (Adrmcovpot), that is, sons of
Zeus, the well-known heroes, Castor and Pollux,
or Polydeuces. The singular form ALro'ieoupos, or
Aradcopos, occurs only in the writings of grammarians, and the Latins sometimes use Castores
for the two brothers. (Plin. H. N. x. 43; Serv.
ad Virg. Georg. iii. 89; Horat. Carm. iii. 29, 64.)
According to the Homeric poems (Od. xi. 298, &c.)
they were the sons of Leda and Tyndareus, king of
Lacedaemon, and consequently brothers of Helena.
(Hom. 11. iii. 426.) Hence they are often called by
the patronymic Tyndaridae. (Ov. Fast. v. 700,
Met. viii. 301.) Castor was famous for his skill
in taming and managing horses, and Pollux for
his skill in boxing. Both had disappeared froms
the earth before the Greeks went against Troy.
Although they were buried, says Homer, yet they
came to life every other day, and they enjoyed
honours like those of the gods. According to
other traditions both were the sons of Zeus and
Leda, and were born at the same time with their
sister Helena out of an egg (Hom. Hymn. xiii.5;
Theocrit. xxii.; Schol. ad Pind. Nem. x. 150;
Apollon. Rhod. i. 149; Hygin. Fab. 155; Tzetz.
ad Ly.copl. 511; Serv. ad Aen. iii. 328), or without their sister, and either out of an egg or in the