Peitho ̄n (of Antinoeia?) (330 – 390 CE?)
Geometer, contemporary with S A, who preserves Peitho ̄n’s definition
of parallel lines ( p. 96, ed. Heiberg).
RE S.7 (1940) 836 (#6), M. Kraus.
GLIM
Pelagios (300 – 520 CE)
Mentioned by O, who cites Pelagios’ work addressed to P (CAAG
2.89). In the Arabic Z material the line is more sensibly attributed to H.
Pelagios’ treatise On This Divine and Sacred Art (CAAG 2.253–261) seems to address the gilding
and silvering of metals like copper and iron; it cites Zo ̄simos, providing the terminus post.
Ed.: CAAG 2.253–261.
Festugière (1944) 1.240, 247; Letrouit (1995) 46–47.
Cristina Viano
Pelagonius of Salona (350 – 400 CE)
Wrote the Ars Veterinaria, a Latin treatise on veterinary medicine, partly surviving in
6th c. fragments from Bobbio, and two MSS, R and E, the former probably reconstituted
from testimonia and a mutilated original. The recently identified E contains only a partial
text, but does explain many discrepancies between R and V, whose Mulomedicina
draws on Pelagonius extensively. The two manuscripts vary widely, at times appearing more
like separate works than different versions of the same opus.
Pelagonius employed several earlier authors including – primarily – A whose
epistolary form he followed; C, whose writing style he tried to imitate; C;
and E ( perhaps only via Apsurtos). Typical of ancient veterinary writers, Pelagonius
concerned himself almost exclusively with the horse and its care, for a presumably upper-
class audience using horses for racing and riding. The Ars Veterinaria originally consisted of
35 chapters each in the form of a letter to a friend or patron. A brief introductory letter
praises horses and states the scope of the work. The second letter contains general informa-
tion about the horse, describing points of good equine conformation and how to determine
age. Subsequent letters discuss common equine diseases and afflictions, such as lethargy,
colic, and glanders. Nearly all remedies are pharmacological, but a few are overtly
magical, possibly interpolated. Arguing from his errors of translation and terminology,
some scholars have doubted whether Pelagonius was a practicing veterinarian. Moreover,
he may have contributed little first-hand experience, and the surviving work appears heavily
redacted.
Ed.: Fischer (1980).
K.D. Fischer, “The first Latin treatise on horse medicine and its author Pelagonius Saloninus,” MHJ 16
(1981) 215–226; Önnerfors (1993) 380–381; Adams (1995); BNP 10 (2007) 691–692, K.D. Fischer.
Jennifer Nilson
Pelops (Med.) (30 BCE – 75 CE)
P, 1.ind.31–32, lists him as a foreign source, and 32.43 cites his prescription for honey
overdose: consume a tortoise boiled without its head and extremities. The Latin translation
PELOPS (MED.)