Trupho ̄n of Gortun (ca 15 BCE – 20 CE)
One of S L’ colleagues, acknowledged as mentor or teacher (praeceptor:
Comp. 175), from Gortun (G, CMLoc 9.2 [13.253 K]). Frequently termed “surgeon”
(Comp. 201; 203; etc.), Trupho ̄n was famed for his plasters, designed to aid knitting of broken
bones – Comp. 201 (“Pale Green Plaster... effective for skull-fracture,” cf. Gale ̄n, CMGen,
4.13 [13.745 K.]), wounds sustained by gladiators – Comp. 203 (“Green Plaster... for fresh
wounds... and for the wounds of gladiators”), as well as for his multiple-ingredient collyria –
e.g. Gale ̄n, CMLoc, 4.8 (12.784 K., “Spherical”) – and antidote-plasters deemed effective
against animal bites, particularly dogs (Comp. 175). Trupho ̄n’s plaster for dog bites saw use in
the court of an “Augusta” (likely Antonia Minor, Claudius’ mother), and Scribonius Largus
says that she always had some at hand. Generally Trupho ̄n favored minerals in his com-
pounds (ensuring long shelf-lives), but he employed in a sophisticated way botanicals and
animal products, suggested by the formulas for “The Antidote Plaster” and “The Pale Green
Plaster.” The former combined powdered iris rhizome, beaver castor, wild fig juice, the fat
and blood of a black dog, Khian terebinth resin, hare’s rennet, rock salt, silphion (either
from Libya or Syria), Pontic beeswax, olive oil, and squill-flavored vinegar, all carefully
ground in vinegar, mixed and melted into a consistency of honey, then stored in glass con-
tainers. “The Pale Green Plaster,” good for broken bones (even old ones, all scabbed and
corroded), mixed flakes of copper with frankincense, Libyan fennel-gum, Bruttian pine-
resin, Khian terebinth resin, calf’s fat, beeswax, olive oil, and vinegar, blended and heated,
and then made into plasters called magdalia, viz. (Grk.) “lumps of bread used for wiping the
hands at table.” The “Green Plaster” for gladiators (Comp. 203), made in quantity, was
intended to stop bleeding and engender quick healing: combining roasted copper, alum,
rock salt, frankincense, verdigris, beeswax, resin, and olive oil, one notes not only the
long shelf-life (most useful in the arena) but the styptic (alum), bactericidal and antibiotic
(frankincense and verdigris), all “packaged” in the green of the verdigris. Trupho ̄n’s
recipes were available in both Greek and Latin, and in some instances, Scribonius Largus
translates directly into Latin from Greek originals. Like Scribonius, Trupho ̄n was probably
bilingual.
RE 7A.1 (1939) 745 (#28), H. Diller.
John Scarborough
Tukhikos of Trapezous (Arm., Tiwkikos; 500 – 600 CE)
Mathematician and philosopher known only from his short biography which comprises part
of the Autobiography of A S. He served the Byzantine army in Armenia
during the reigns of Tiberius (578–582) and Maurice (582–602). After being wounded, he
devoted the rest of his life to study, traveling successively to Antioch, Jerusalem, Alexandria,
Rome, and eventually to Constantinople, where he studied with an unnamed “doctor of the
city of philosophers.” Upon the death of this last teacher, Tukhikos was nominated to
succeed him, but declined and returned to his native Trapezous. Anania studied with
Tukhikos for eight years and while there he thoroughly mastered mathematics and became
learned in many other fields, for Tukhikos possessed many books “secret and esoteric,
ecclesiastical and profane, scientific and historical, medical and chronological.” Apparently
a very learned man in all branches of learning, who taught a large number of students,
Tukhikos has left no writings of his own.
TUKHIKOS OF TRAPEZOUS