Serapio ̄n (or Sarapio ̄n) of Alexandria (240 – 200 BCE)
Physician, the second exponent of the Empiricist “school” after P K in the
catalogue in -G I 14.683 K.; C pr.10 speaks of him as
the founder of that “school,” perhaps echoing a claim by Serapio ̄n himself, whom G
ironically calls “the new Asclepius” (Subf. Emp. 11). As Philinos before him, he polemized
against the He ̄rophileans, but also against other medical schools, as the title Against the
Sects shows (C A Acute 2.32 [CML 6.1.1, p. 148]; about this work Gale ̄n
wrote two lost books: On my own Books 9 [2.115 MMH]). Perhaps in a work entitled Through
three (Dià trio ̄n: Gale ̄n, Subf. Emp. 11) he formalized the doctrine of the school, elaborating its
three basic concepts, experience (empeiria), the reports of others (historia), and analogical
reasoning (tou homoíou metábasis: “transition to the similar”). According to Gale ̄n, it was
controversial whether this third principle was, for Serapio ̄n, a constitutive part of the
medicine, or whether it was only a heuristic principle (Subf. Emp. 4 and Part. Art. Med.:
H. Schöne, Galeni de partibus artis medicativae [1911] 32). The greater part of the remaining
fragments comes from the Therapeutics in three books (testified particularly by Caelius
Aurelianus). They are concerned with single remedies, related to different pathologies,
which probably included the malagma that Serapio ̄n took up from the He ̄rophilean
A (A P. in Gale ̄n, CMLoc 10.2 [13.343–344 K.]) and the
so-called “Serapio ̄n’s emplastrum,” used for dermatological diseases (K in Gale ̄n,
CMGen 6.6 [13.883 K.]).
Ed.: Deichgräber (1930) 164–168 (fragments), 255–256.
RE 2A.2 (1923) 1667–1668 (#9), H. Gasser; OCD3 1392, von Staden; Idem (1999) 160–163; Ihm (2002)
#230.
Fabio Stok
Serapio ̄n of Antioch (100 – 60 BCE)
Mathematical geographer, called “most recent” by C, ad Att. 2.4.1, and a critic of
E, ad Att. 2.6.1. P, 1.ind.2, 4–5 cites him as a writer on gnomons and
geography.
NP 11.444 (#1), W. Hübner.
PTK
Serenus (Pharm.) (50 – 540 CE)
A A 6.16 (CMG 8.2, p. 157) quotes Serenus’ drug for epileptics, compounded
of castor (the plant), black hellebore, scammony, opopanax, Theban cumin, natron, sulfur,
wild rue, and wormwood-seeds, among other potent ingredients, to be drunk in vinegar-
water. Emendation to “S” may be ruled out, as he cautioned against even penny-
royal (1.62), and no Greek text is attributed to S (S). The name is
attested from the 1st c. CE: LGPN 1.404, 2.396; PLRE 1 (1971) 826, 2 (1980) 993.
RE 2A.2 (1923) 1677 (#8), F.E. Kind.
John Scarborough
SERENUS (PHARM.)