The Encyclopedia of Ancient Natural Scientists: The Greek tradition and its many heirs

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actor (Suet. Dom. 3.1; Mart. 11.13.7; Juv. 6.87). The Kosme ̄tika enjoyed a long life, circulating
widely in Byzantine times, with Arabic translations appearing sometime after 850 CE (GAS 3
[1970] 60–61; Ullmann 1972: 69–70).
Gale ̄n also extracts at length Krito ̄n’s pharmacological writings: the Pharmakitis (CMLoc 6.4
[12.883–884 K.]) cited S’s plaster for all sorts of ailments resulting from sexual
overindulgence, and was arranged topographically, by affected body parts (head in Book 1:
CMLoc 2.2 [12.587 K.]), and pharmaceutically, by types of medicines: theriac in Book 3
(Antid. 1.17 [14.103 K.]), and plasters in Book 4 (CMGen 4.6 [13.708–716 K.]). Another
tract, in five books (CMGen 4.6, 5.3, 6.1–2 [13.708–716, 786–801, 859–882 K.]) was entitled
either Peri te ̄s to ̄n pharmako ̄n suntheseo ̄s (Compounding Drugs [13.786 K.]), or Peri to ̄n haplo ̄n
pharmako ̄n (Simples [13.862 K.]).
Krito ̄n accompanied his royal patient on the Dacian campaigns (101–102 and 105– 106
CE), and composed an account of those wars, the Getika, apparently a striking eyewitness
narrative (peculiar words, such as those describing Dacian defenses, Dacian felt-caps, and
arable land, can derive only from an eyewitness: Scarborough 390–393). His medical
vocabulary probably obscured his history for later readers, as suggested by the Souda’s
extracts of weird words; and Lucian may have aimed K at Krito ̄n’s
unfortunate style (Hist. concsr. 16; cf. Baldwin), which doomed the Getika to extinction, once
exploited by Dio Cassius. Krito ̄n may also have participated in Trajan’s Mesopotamian
campaign (115– 117 CE). Some well-informed medical details preserved about Trajan’s
death suggest a witness acquainted with 2nd c. CE prognostics, perhaps again Krito ̄n.


Ed. [Getika]: FGrHist 200.
Wellmann (1895) chs. 3–4 (“Theodorus, Magnus, Herodot, Leonidas”); F.A. Lepper, Trajan’s Parthian
Wa r (1948; repr. 1993) 198–201 [“Trajan’s Health”]; R. Syme, Tacitus (1958) 1.221 [on the Dacian
campaigns]; Fabricius (1972) 190–192; B. Baldwin, Studies in Lucian (1973) 36–40; RE S.14 (1974)
216 – 220, J. Benedum; J.N. Adams, The Latin Sexual Vocabulary (1982) 40–41; Scarborough (1985c);
NP 11.921–922, Alain Touwaide.
John Scarborough and Alain Touwaide


Krito ̄n of Naxos (335 – 250 BCE?)


Wrote an oktaete ̄ris sometimes attributed to E (Souda K-2454); P 18.312
(cf. 1.ind.18) appears to cite him.


RE 11.2 (1922) 1935 (#6), A. Rehm.
PTK


Kronios (130 – 170 CE)


Friend of N (P, de antro Nymph. 21), listed among the neo-Platonic
authors read in P’ school (Porph., Vita Plot. 14), and perhaps identifiable with the
Kronios to whom Lucian dedicates Death of Peregrinus (165 CE). He wrote on the nuptial
number in P, Rep. 546c (asserting that fire is incapable of destroying all matter, evi-
dence for which is the “Carystian” stone, asbestos, and explaining that the male is a myriad
and the female 7500: P, In Remp. 2.22–23 Kroll), and the myth of Er in Plato, Rep.
614 – 621 (declaring that Er was a historical teacher of Z: Proklos, In Remp. 2.110
Kroll). In On Reincarnation (peri paliggenesias), his only titled work, Kronios argued that “souls
always remain rational” (N, Nat. Hom. 2.116–7 M.).


BNP 3 (2003) 958–959 (#1), M. Frede.
PTK and GLIM


KRONIOS
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