causation. The author (§§ 26 – 30) divides causes into prokatartika (predisposing), proe ̄goumena
(antecedent), and sunezeugmena (conjoint), as had A A. The heat of
fever arises from the innate heat of the heart (§2), but is none the less unnatural (§8).
Pneuma and humors are not the primary agents of disease or fever (§13). In §§16.1, 24.5,
30.1, he appears to cite A K.
Ed.: Ideler 1 (1841/1963) 81–106; P. Tassinari, Trattato sulla febbre (1994).
P. Tassinari, “Il trattato sulle febbri dello ps. Alessandro d’Afrodisia,” ANRW 2.37.2 (1994) 2019–2034.
PTK
Alexander of Ephesos, Lukhnos (75 – 45 BCE)
This rhetor was contemporary with C who described him in mixed words such as
poeta ineptus, non inutilis (Att., 2.20.6; 2.22.7). He was known as Lukhnos (“The Light”) and
wrote an historical work on the Marsian War. S (14.1.25) especially mentions him
as an author of didactic poems on geography (SH 23 – 38: it seems that D
A took him as a model) and astronomy: he wrote Phainomena of which the
remaining 26 hexameters show the influence of Pythagorean philosophy on his descrip-
tion of the harmony of spheres (SH 21).
BNP 1 (2003) 479 (#22), C. Selzer; SH 19 – 38.
Christophe Cusset
Alexander of Laodikeia on the Lukos, Philale ̄the ̄s (20 BCE – 25 CE)
Originally a follower of A B, succeeded Z as arkhiatros of the
He ̄rophilean school in Asia, tutored A and D P
(G, Puls. Diff. 4.10 [8.744, 746 K.]). His views on lethargy, a sudden loss of reason
accompanied by fever and impaired senses (C A, Acute 2.5 [CML 6.1.1,
p. 132]), digestion, a predisposition but not assimilation of nutriments (L .
24.27–35), and pores, all derive from Askle ̄piade ̄s (cf. von Staden 1989: 532–534). Alexander
posits invisible apertures (“apprehensible only by reason”) through which corporeal matter
enters and leaves the body (Londiniensis med. 35.21–9, 38.58–39.13). Alexander offered
two definitions of the pulse (Gale ̄n, Puls. Diff. 4.4–5 [8.725–727, 731 K.]): (1) involuntary
contractions and distentions of heart and arteries (“objective,” according to nature); (2) the
throb resulting from the continuous involuntary motion of arteries against one’s touch and
its following interval (“subjective”). His “objective” definition is orthodox He ̄rophilean: cf.
B, Z (H.), and K. Alexander concurs with the
He ̄rophilean theory that male seminal fluid arises in the blood (fr.9 von Staden). He
wrote a Gynecology (at least two books), denying illnesses specific to women (S Gyn.
3.2: CMG 4, pp. 94–95; CUF v. 3, p. 47) and defining vaginal flux as a sanguineous flow
over the uterus (cf. D A). The A B (1, p. 208
Wellmann) cites the first book of Alexander’s On Seed. In Opinions, at least five books and
filtered to Gale ̄n through Aristoxenos, Alexander is connected with the doxographic trad-
ition reaching back, perhaps, to H himself (von Staden 1989: 538; cf. Gale ̄n,
above).
von Staden (1989) 532–539; OCD3 61, Idem; Idem (1999) 164–165; BNP 1 (2002) 485, V. Nutton.
GLIM
ALEXANDER OF EPHESOS, LUKHNOS