Background

Pedanius Dioscorides was born c. 40 A.D. in Anazarbus, Cilicia, Asia Minor, in the Roman Empire.

Education

Dioscorides likely studied medicine nearby at the school in Tarsus, which had a pharmacological emphasis.

Career

A letter attached to Dioscorides’ work as a dedicatory preface reveals almost all that is known of his life. The letter states that Dioscorides lived a soldier’s life; this enabled him to learn at first hand the identity, preparation, and uses of medicines. He attached himself to the Roman army as a military physician. These suppositions are based on his statement that he led a “soldier-like life,” his remark that he has “lived” with Areius of Tarsus, and the likelihood that his travels would have taken him to Alexandria, where he could have had access to the library.

Dioscorides has been dated both by the mention of his contemporaries and by Galen’s use of Dioscorides’ work. Erotian, a commentator of the Hippocratic works who lived during the Neronian age, mentions Dioscorides. In his letter to Areius, Dioscorides mentions Laecanius Bassus, presumed to be C. Laecanius Bassus, consul in A.D. 64, who is spoken of by Pliny and Tacitus. Quintus Sextius Niger is the latest writer whom Dioscorides cites. Pliny the Elder did not know Dioscorides’ works directly, but certain similarities between Pliny’s and Dioscorides’ texts are explained by their having employed the same written source, Sextius Niger.

Although numerous treatises in Greek and Latin are falsely attributed to Dioscorides - both by virtue of his reputation as a major authority in medicines for around 1,600 years and because of numerous editions of his work - only one treatise, De materia medica, is now attributed to Dioscorides. The title is taken from book 3 and is the same title as that of Sextius Niger’s lost work. Written in five books, the treatise discusses over 600 plants, thirty-five animal products, and ninety minerals in simple, concise Greek.

Of the approximately 827 entries, only about 130 substances are included in the Hippocratic corpus. Being the author of by far the largest pharmaceutical guide in antiquity, Dioscorides added considerably to the knowledge of drugs. More important, this procedure for relating information on medicine and his unadorned critical skill determined the general form of later pharmacopoeias, both Eastern and Western. Galen, always a severe critic, acknowledged Dioscorides’ work to be the best of its kind and showed his respect by numerous citations.

For each item generally he gave a Greek synonym, and the names themselves were often of foreign origin, coming from various languages of Africa, Gaul, Persia, Armenia, Egypt, and the like. There follows a deposition on the substance’s origin and physical characteristics. He then gives a discourse on the mode of preparation of the medicine and, finally, a list of its medicinal uses with occasional notations of harmful side effects. Often he relates information about how the simple is compounded in a prescription; further, he gives dietetic hints and even tests for detecting a fraudulent preparation.

Achievements

• Dioscorides is credited as being the first to recognize the extensive use of medicines from all three of the natural kingdoms - animal, vegetable, and mineral. His work De materia medica was the foremost classical source of modern botanical terminology and the leading pharmacological text for 16 centuries.
  
  He was largely responsible for determining modem plant nomenclature, both popular and scientific, because of the reliance of later authorities on his work. Numerous medicines in Dioscorides’ work appear in modern pharmacopoeias, among them almond oil, aloes, ammoniacum, belladonna, calamine, calcium hydrate, cherry syrup, cinnamon, copper oxide, coriander, galbanum, galls, ginger, juniper, lavender, lead acetate, marjoram, mastic, mercury, olive oil, opium, pepper, pine bark, storax, sulfur, terebinth, thyme, and wormwood.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Pedacii Dioscoridae Anazarbei De Medica Materia Libri Sex

Views

Although an empiricist in method, Dioscorides apparently belonged to no definite philosophical school (his friend Areius was a follower of Asclepiades). He cited the need to study each plant in relation to its habitat, to observe rigorously the plants at all seasons, to note all parts from the first shoots to the seeds, to prepare each medicine with precision, and to judge each medicine by its merits.

Dioscorides claimed that his work surpassed that of his predecessors in terms of his industry in collecting his information, his unlimited range in finding medicines, and the arrangement of his material. He conceded that the older writers transmitted much accurate information but deplored the fact that recent writers had introduced the element of controversy to medicine by speculating vainly on the causes of drugs’ powers, while failing to pay proper attention to their experience in the use of drugs.

Dioscorides said that whenever possible he saw plants with his own eyes but that he also relied on questioning people in the course of his travels and on consulting previously written works. Dioscorides cautioned his readers that knowledge of plants was gained by experience, and also noted that storage of medicines is important.

Personality

Judged by the number of editions, printings, and translations, Dioscorides was very popular during the Renaissance.

Connections

Father:

Dioscorides

Friend:

Areius

References

• Ancient Medicine The new edition of Ancient Medicine includes the key discoveries made since the first edition, especially from important texts discovered in recent finds of papyri and manuscripts, making it the most comprehensive and up-to-date survey available.
  2012
• The Western Herbal Tradition
  2016
• The History of Medicine
  2012