LIBER VII · CAPUT 37
NAMES OF MEN WHO HAVE EXCELLED IN THE ARTS, ASTROLOGY, GRAMMAR, AND MEDICINE
Latine · Mayhoff 1906
Variarum artium scientia innumerabiles enituere, quos tamen attingi par sit florem hominum libantibus: astrologia Berosus, cui ob divinas praedictiones Athenienses publice in gymnasio statuam inaurata lingua statuere; grammatica Apollodorus, cui Amphictyones Graeciae honorem habuere; Hippocrates medicina, qui venientem ab Illyriis pestilentiam praedixit discipulosque ad auxiliandum circa urbes dimisit, quod ob meritum honores illi quos Herculi decrevit Graecia. eandem scientiam in Cleombroto Ceo Ptolemaeus rex Megalensibus sacris donavit centum talentis servato Antiocho rege. magna et Critobulo fama est extracta Philippi regis oculo sagitta et citra deformitatem oris curata orbitate luminis, summa autem Asclepiadi Prusiensi condita nova secta, spretis legatis et pollicitationibus Mithridatis regis, reperta ratione qua vinum aegris medetur, relato e funere homine et conservato, sed maxime sponsione facta cum fortuna, ne medicus crederetur, si umquam invalidus ullo modo fuisset ipse. et vicit suprema in senecta lapsu scalarum exanimatus.
Grande et Archimedi geometricae ac machinalis scientiae testimonium M. Marcelli contigit interdicto, cum Syracusae caperentur, ne violaretur unus, nisi fefellisset imperium militaris inprudentia. laudatus est et Chersiphron Gnosius aede Ephesi Dianae admirabili fabricata, Philon Athenis armamentario CD navium, Ctesibius pneumatica ratione et hydraulicis organis repertis, Dinochares metatus Alexandro condente in Aegypto Alexandriam. idem hic imperator edixit ne quis ipsum alius quam Apelles pingeret, quam Pyrgoteles scalperet, quam Lysippus ex aere duceret. quae artes pluribus inclaruere exemplis.
English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57
Innumerable are the men who have excelled in the various arts; we may, however, take a cursory survey of them, by citing the names of the principal ones. Berosus excelled in astrology; and on account of his divinations and predictions, a public statue was erected in his honour by the Athenians. Apollodorus, for his skill as a grammarian, had public honours decreed him by the Amphictyonic Council of Greece. Hippocrates excelled in medicine; before its arrival, he predicted the plague, which afterwards came from Illyria, and sent his pupils to various cities, to give their assistance. As an acknowledgment of his merit, Greece decreed him the same honours as to Hercules. King Ptolemy rewarded a similar degree of skill in the person of Cleombrotus of Ceos, by a donation of one hundred talents, at the Megalensian games, he having succeeded in saving the life of King Antiochus. Critobulus also rendered himself extremely famous, by extracting an arrow from the eye of King Philip with so much skill, that, although the sight was lost, there was no defect to be seen. Asclepiades of Prusa, however, acquired the greatest fame of all—he founded a new sect, treated with disdain the promises of King Mithridates conveyed to him by an embassy, discovered a method of successfully treating diseases by wine, and, breaking in upon the funeral ceremony, saved the life of a man, who was actually placed on the funeral pile. He rendered himself, however, more celebrated than all, by staking his reputation as a physician against Fortune herself, and asserting that he did not wish to be so much as looked upon as a physician, if he should ever happen in any way to fall sick; and he won his wager, for he met his death at an extreme old age, by falling down stairs.
M. Marcellus, too, at the taking of Syracuse, offered a remarkable homage to the sciences of geometry and mechanics, by giving orders that Archimedes was to be the only person who should not be molested; his commands, however, were disregarded, in consequence of the imprudence of one of the soldiers. Chersiphron, also, the Cnossian, was rendered famous by the admirable construction of the temple of Diana at Ephesus; Philon, by the construction of the basin at Athens, which was capable of containing one thousand vessels; Ctesibius, by the invention of pneumatics and hydraulic machines; and Dinochares, by the plan which he made of the city of Alexandria, founded by Alexander in Egypt. The same monarch, too, by public edict, declared that no one should paint his portrait except Apelles, and that no one should make a marble statue of him except Pyrgoteles, or a bronze one except Lysippus. These arts have all been rendered glorious by many illustrious examples.