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From these we gather that Hippocrates was born
in Cos in 460 B.C.; | Aulus Gellius N.A. XVII. 21 says that he was older
than Socrates. This statement, if true, would put his birth
prior to 470 B.C. |
that he belonged to the guild of
physicians called Asclepiadae ; that his father was
Heraclides, and his teachers were Herodicus and
his own father ; that he travelled all over Greece,
and was a great friend of Democritus of Abdera ;
that his help was sought by Perdiccas king of Macedonia
and by Artaxerxes king of Persia ; that he
stayed the plague at Athens and in other places ;
that his life was a long one but of uncertain length,
the traditions making him live 85, 90, 104 or 109
years.
In these accounts there is a certain amount of
fable, but in the broad outline there is nothing
improbable except the staying of the Athenian
plague, which is directly contrary to the testimony
of Thucydides, who expressly states that medical
help was generally unsuccessful.
The Epislles in the Hippocratic collection, and the
so-called Decree of the Athenians, merely give, with
fuller picturesqueness of detail, the same sort of
information as is contained in the biographies.
Plato refers to Hippocrates in two dialogues--the
Protagoras and the Phaedrus. The former
passage tells us that Hippocrates was a Coan, an
Asclepiad, and a professional trainer of medical
students ; the latter states as a fundamental principle
of Hippocratic physiology the dogma that an understanding
of the body is impossible without an
understanding of nature as a whole, in modern
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