inadvertent connection of the end-title of the first treatise with the beginning of the
second, but the second is entirely different from the first in approach, style, and content.
It is almost certainly not by Bakkheios. The second treatise is followed in most (but not all)
MSS by an epigram referring to a certain Dionusios and the emperor Constantine. The
epigram has commonly been taken to refer to the second treatise, the attribution of
which is accordingly modified (even in some of the MSS) to Dionusios, but this, too, is
hardly certain, nor is it certain which of the several possible emperors Constantine is
intended or whether Bakkheios is contemporary with Dionusios. In the end, the epigram
is of no use in dating either treatise, and only the first can be reasonably assigned to
Bakkheios.
The treatise, presented as a series of questions and answers, mixes definitions and theories
from various early traditions. The first 88 questions define common terms and concepts
in harmonics; questions 89–101 are devoted to rhythmics. Some of the answers (11, 13–18,
29 – 34 and 38–42) employ musical notation, recognizable from the tables of A.
The treatise represents nothing completely new, but several of the answers, especially in
the section on rhythmics, clarify or confirm other sources. The unassuming character,
routine content, and style of the treatise suggest a date no earlier than 300.
Ed.: MSG 292 – 316.
O. Steinmayer, trans., “Bacchius Geron’s ‘Introduction to the Art of Music’,” Journal of Music Theory
29 (1985) 271–298; NGD2 2.293–294; Mathiesen (1999) 583–593.
Thomas J. Mathiesen
Bakkheios of Mile ̄tos (325 – 90 BCE)
Agronomist whose work, which may have treated cereals, livestock, poultry, viticulture, and
arboriculture (cf. P, 1.ind.8, 10, 14–15, 17–18), was excerpted by C D
(V, RR 1.1.8–10, cf. C, 1.1.9).
RE 2.2 (1896) 2790 (#9), M. Wellmann.
Philip Thibodeau
Bakkheios of Tanagra (250 – 200 BCE)
Physician, resident in Alexandria, among the rare central Greek immigrants. Bakkheios was
a “He ̄rophilean” in medical practice, valuing anatomy, pharmacology, and knowledge of
the pulses in diagnosis and prognosis, but he is generally cited for his lexicographical studies
of Hippokratic terminologies. E records his glosses on at least 18 works of
the H C (including E III, S D, A,
W H, and Joints, Instruments of Reduction, Fractures: see S), demon-
strating the circulation of “Hippokratic” writings by the 3rd c. BCE. Probably the pre-
dominance of so-called “Koan” treatises (as contrasted to those presumably from Knidos)
led later commentators to make what modern scholarship has determined to be a false
dichotomy among the Hippokratic tracts. In addition to the extensive fragments of
Bakkheios’ Hippokratic Lexicon (Lexeis), later authors cite him for his work in pulse theory
(G, Diff. Puls. 4.6, 10 [8.732–733, 748–749 K.]; M, On Pulses 3 [p. 457
Schöne]; and Gale ̄n, Dign. Puls. 4.3 [8.955 K.]), and pharmacology (Gale ̄n, CMGen 7.7
[13.987 K.]). Also mentioned is his Memoirs of H ̄ and Those from his House
(Gale ̄n, CMG 5.10.2.2, p. 203).
BAKKHEIOS OF TANAGRA