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

HIPPOCRATES. HIPPOCRATES. 483
isted. (See Houdart, Etudes sur Hippocrate, p. PEtoN], by Perdiccas II., king of Macedonia, and
560.) The few facts respecting him that may be discovering, by certain external symptoms, that
considered as tolerably well ascertained may be his sickness was occasioned by his having fallen in
told in few words. His father was Heracleides, love with his father's concubine. Probably *the
who was also a physician, and belonged to the strongest reason against the truth of this story is
family of the Asclepiadae. According to Soranus the fact that the time of the supposed cure is quite
(Vita Hippocr., in Hippocr. Opera, vol. iii.), he irreconcileable with the commonly received date of'
was the nineteenth in descent from Aesculapius, the birth of Hippocrates;'though M. LittrY, the
but John Tzetzes, who gives the genealogy of latest and; best editor of Hippocrates, while he
the family, makes him the seventeenth. His rejects the story as spurious, finds no difficulty in
mother's name was Phaenarete, who was said to be the dates (vol. i. p. 38). Soranus, who tells the
descended from Hercules. Soranus, on the autho- anecdote, says that the occurrence took place after
rity of an old writer who had composed a life of the death of Alexander I., the father of Perdiccas;
Hippocrates, states that he was born in the island and we may reasonably presume that one or two
of Cos, in the first year ofthe eightieth Olympiad, years would be the longest interval that would
that is, B. c. 460; and this date is generally elapse. The date of the death of Alexander is
followed, for want of any more satisfactory inform- not exactly known, and depends. upon the length of
ation on the subject, though it agrees so ill with the reign of his son Perdiccas, who died B. c..414.
some of the anecdotes respecting him, that some The longest period assigned to his reign is fortypersons suppose him to have been born about thirty one years, the shortest is twenty-three. This latter
years sooner. The exact day of his birth was date would place his accession to the throne on his
known and celebrated in Cos with sacrifices on the father's death, at B. C. 437, at which time Hippo26th day of the month Agrianus, but it is unknown crates would be only twenty-three years old, almost
to what date in any other calendar this month cor- too young an age for him to have acquired so great
responds. He was instructed in medical science by celebrity as to be specially sent for to attend a
his father and by Herodicus, and is also said to foreign prince. However, the date of B. C. 437 is
have been a pupil of Gorgias of Leontini. He the less probable because it would not only extend
wrote, taught, and practised his profession at the reign of his father Alexander to more than
home; travelled in different parts of the continent sixty years, but would also suppose him to have
of Greece; and died at Larissa in Thessaly. His lived seventy years after a period at which'he was
age at the time of his death is uncertain, as it is already grown up to manhood. For these reasons
stated by different ancient authors to have been Mr. Clinton (F. Hell. ii. 222) agrees with Dodwell
eighty-five years, ninety, one hundred and four, in supposing the longer periods assigned to his
and one hundred and nine. Mr. Clinton places reign to be nearer the truth; and assumes the achis death B. C. 357, at the age of one hundred and cession of Perdiccas to have fallen within B. C. 454,
four. He had two sons, Thessalus and Dracon, at which time Hippocrates was only six years old.
and a son-in-law, Polybus, all of whom followed This celebrated story has been told, with more or
the same profession, and who are supposed to have less variation, of Erasistratus and Avicenna, besides
been the authors of some of the works in the being interwoven in the romance of Heliodorus
Hippocratic Collection. Such are the few and (Aethiop. iv. 7. p. 171), and the love-letters of
scanty facts that can be in some degree depended Aristaenetus (Epist. i. 13). Galen also says that
on respecting the personal history of this cele- a similar circumstance happened to himself. (De
brated man; but though we have not the means of Praenot. ad Epig. c. 6. vol. xiv. p. 630.) The
writingan authentic detailed biography, we possess story as applied to Avicenna seems to be most
in these few facts, and in the hints and allusions con- probably apocryphal (see Biogr. Diet. of the
tained in various ancient authors, sufficient data to Usef. Knowl. Soc. vol. iv. p. 301); and with
enable us to appreciate the part he played, and the respect to the two other claimants, Hippocrates
place he held among his contemporaries. We find and Erasistratus, if it be true of either, the prethat he enjoyed their esteem as a practitioner, ponderance of historical testimony is decidedly in
writer, and professor; that he conferred on the favour of the latter. [ERASISTRATUS.] Another
ancient and illustrious family to which he belonged old Greek fable relates to his being appointed
more honour than he derived from it; that he ren- librarian at Cos, and burning the books there (or,
dered the medical school of Cos, to which he was according to another version of the story, at Cnidos,)
attached, superior to any which had preceded it or in order to conceal the use he had made of them in
immediately followed it; and that his works, soon his own writings. This story is also told, with but
after their publication, were studied and quoted by little variation, of Avicenna, and is repeated of
Plato. (See Littre's Hippocr. vol. i. p. 43; and a Hippocrates, with some characteristic embellishreview of that work (by the writer of this article) ments, in the European Legends of the Middle
in the Brit. and For. Med. Rev. April, 1844, p. Ages. [ANDREAS.]
459.);. The other fables concerning Hippocrates are to
Upon this slight foundation of historical truth be traced to the collection of Letters, &c. which go
has been built a vast superstructure of fabulous under his name, but which are universally rejected
error; and it is curious to observe how all these as spurious. The most celebrated of these relates
tales receive a colouring from the times and coun- to his supposed conduct during the plague of
tries in which they appear to have been fabricated; Athens, which he is said to have stopped by burn.
whether by his own countrymen before the Chris- ing fires throughout the city, by suspending chaptian era, or by the Latin or Arabic writers of the' lets of flowers, and by the use of an antidote, the
middle ages. One of the stories told of him by composition of which is preserved by Joannes Achis Greek biograpners, which most modern critics tuarius (De Meth. Med. v. 6. p. 264, ed. H. Steph.)
are disposed to regard as fabulous, relates to his Connected with this, is the pretended letter from
being sent- for, together with Euryphon [EURY- Artaxerxes Longimanus, king of Persia, to Hippo,
I 2