Albinus of Smurna (130 – 170 CE)
Wrote a brief Introduction to Plato’s dialogues (Prologos or Eisago ̄ge ̄), preserved in the P MS
Vindob. suppl. gr. 7 and containing a theory of the dialogue genre, a classification of Plato’s
works and two distinct sequences for reading the dialogues. No longer extant are: (a) tran-
scripts of G’ lectures, a survey of Platonic doctrine, (b) a treatise on the incorporeal,
and (c) possibly commentaries on Plato’s Timaeus, Republic and Phaedo. Transcripts of Gaius’
lectures and the survey of Platonic doctrine, still available in the 6th c., figured in the lost
half of MS Paris. gr. 1962 (9th c.), the pinax of which is still extant. The Prologos could well be
the introduction to the lecture transcripts. Albinus was Gaius’ disciple and was considered
important by later Platonists, such as P (cf. in Remp. 2.96.10–13). For a long while
credited with the Didaskalikos (cf. J. Freudenthal, Der Platoniker Albinos und der falsche Alkinoos,
1879), now re-attributed to A. G met Albinus in Smurna some time between
149 and 157.
Ed.: Burkhard Reis, Der Platoniker Albinos und sein sogenannter ‘Prologos’ (1999); Gioè (2002) 79–115.
DPA 1 (1989) 96–97, J. Whittaker; T. Göransson, Albinus, Alcinous, Arius Didymus (1995); BNP 1 (2002)
431 – 432, M. Baltes.
Jan Opsomer
A- ⇒ A-
Alexander (Geog.) (300 BCE? – 110 CE)
M T in P Geography 1.14 cites an Alexander for the description of a
voyage far to the east (so perhaps after ca 120 BCE).
RE S.6 (1935) 3–5 (#90a), W. Kubitschek.
PTK
Alexander (Med.) (400 – 600 CE)
Early Byzantine physician, wrote on sphygmology and urology (Alexandrou iatrou peri
diagno ̄seo ̄s sphugmo ̄n epi to ̄n puresso ̄nto ̄n kai peri ouro ̄n aphorismoi). The work survives in a 15th c.
MS (Paris, BNF, graecus 2316, ff.207V– 214 V), there attributed to A T-
, and is cited by Io ̄anne ̄s Aktouarios (On urine, Ideler 2 [1842/1963] 5). The work,
perhaps a fragment of a larger unknown work (1.88 Puschm.), proffers a typical 5th/6th c.
Alexandrian school synthesis of earlier knowledge. The work explores the causes of diseases
as the basis for prognosis. The part on the pulse deals with fevers and several diseases
classified a capite ad calcem. The part on urine is more aphoristic in nature. Both take for
granted a good knowledge of the topics as they do not explain any of the notions they use.
Two Medieval Latin translations are ascribed to G: Diels 1905–1907: 1.128, 132,
2.13; Beccaria (1956) 126, 137, 299, 327; L. McKinney, Early Medieval Medicine with Special
Reference to France and Chartres (1937) 188–191. Through these, the text helped disseminate
early-Byzantine uroscopical knowledge to the West.
Ed.: E.F. Farge, Alexandre de Tralles, ms. latin du du X siècle: un livre inédit (1891); E. Landgraf, Program der
königlichen Progymnasiums in Ludwigshafen am Rhein (1895); B. Nosske, Alexandri (Tralliani?) liber de agno-
scendis febribus et [sic] pulsibus et urinis aus dem Breslauer Codex Salernitanus (1919); H. Pohl, “De pulsis et
urinis omnium causarum” aus der Handschrift Nr.44 der Stiftsbibliothek zu St.Gallen: Ein Pseudogalentext aus dem
frühen Mittelalter (Inaug.-Diss. Leipzig 1922); H. Leisinger, Die lateinischen Harnschriften Pseudo-Galens =
ALEXANDER (MED.)