Mege ̄s of Sido ̄n (10 BCE – 30 CE)
Surgeon from Sido ̄n (kheirourgos: G, CMLoc 5.3 [13.845 K.]; ho Sido ̄nios: Gale ̄n, MM
6.6 [10.454 K.]), T’s student (scholion to O, Coll. 44.21, title = CMG
6.2.1, p. 142). He emigrated to Rome where he attained fame and presumably fortune
from his skilful surgical procedures for bladder stones (C 7.26.2N) and fistulas, as well
as carefully compounded collyria (here, “surgical tents”: glutinous pastes rolled into rods to
dilate fistulas), for treating fistulas – very common and troublesome (abnormally-open tubu-
lar passages between epithelial surfaces; modern diagnostics names ca 100 varieties). Mege ̄s’
collyrium for hardened fistulas was simple and rapidly effective, consisting of verdigris,
ammo ̄niakon incense, and vinegar (Celsus 5.28.12K). K in Gale ̄n (CMLoc 5.2
[12.845 K.]) records another of Mege ̄s’ famous plasters (also for dissolving calluses), a
rather harsh one, compounded from psimuthion, beeswax, terebinth-resin, litharge,
olive oil, and water. Celsus 7.pr.3 rates Mege ̄s as “most learned” of surgeons who have
practiced in Rome, and Oreibasios (ibid., pp. 142–144) cites with enormous respect Mege ̄s’
On Fistulas. (Even at the end of the 19th c., Gurlt mirrored a professional esteem afforded
to Mege ̄s’ scrupulous surgical techniques.) Unusually Mege ̄s appears to have studied
human anatomy: On Fistulas contains meticulous descriptions, and Celsus, recording
detailed bladder anatomy, credits Mege ̄s with inventing a “straight blade, a knife bordered
widely on its upper part but semicircular below” (7.26.2N), for use in operations to remove
rough bladder stones.
E. Gurlt, Geschichte der Chirurgie und ihrer Ausübung (1898) 1.332–333 (“Meges”); RE 15.1 (1931) 328,
H. Raeder; J.D. Grainger, Hellenistic Phoenicia (1991) 185.
John Scarborough
Megethio ̄n (of Alexandria?) (ca 285 – 320 CE)
Dedicatee of the fifth book of P’ Mathematical Collection (5.pr.).
Netz (1997) #22.
GLIM
Megethios of Alexandria (ca 530 – 540 CE)
S, In de Caelo 3.3 (CAG 7 [1894] 602), on the potential presence of elements in
substances cites both T, fr.281 FHSG (fire excreted from the eyes, cf. De Sensu
26), and his own contemporary the doctor Megethios, who showed that fire was excreted by
the flesh of a man with sciatica. For the rare name, cf. only LGPN 4.226 (2nd/3rd c. CE).
Fabricius (1726) 328.
PTK
M ⇒ M
M ⇒ P M
Melampous (300 – 200 BCE?)
Physiognomist and astrologer; three brief seemingly complete treatises survive. (I ) Divination
by Birthmarks (peri elaio ̄n tou so ̄matos) details signs indicated by birthmarks – probably moles
MEGE ̄S OF SIDO ̄N