Damis of Kolopho ̄n (195 – 185 BCE?)
Designed a sambuke ̄, perhaps for Kolopho ̄n’s successful emergency defense against
Antiokhos III’s circumvallation (Livy 37.26.5–8, 28.4, 31.3). Damis’ sambuke ̄, described
by B, Belop. 5 (pp. 57–61 W.), rolled into position on four wheels, with the ladder
horizontal, which was then elevated to the top of the wall, by kokhlias (screw) and ergate ̄s
(winch) rotating the ladder and counterweight (the exact mechanism is disputed). The
ladder was screened and held about ten fully armed men at its extremity, balanced by
several metric tons of lead. The name is rare outside Kure ̄ne ̄, after P Book
21, fr.31.6 (LGPN).
Irby-Massie and Keyser (2002) 162–163.
PTK
Da ̄mokrate ̄s, Seruilius (ca 70 – 80 CE)
P (25.87) mentions a physician Seruilius Da ̄mokrate ̄s, who “recently” in Spain had
discovered a herb called iberis. This with Da ̄mokrate ̄s’ quotation of the younger A-
(G, CMGen 6.12, 13.920 K.) fixes his period of activity. According to Pliny
(24.43), Da ̄mokrate ̄s cured the daughter of the former consul M. Seruilius, suggesting that
he gained the rights of Roman citizenship from this patrician. The cure was purely
pharmaceutical, as are all his surviving 1,650 iambs. These 48 recipes (from nine to 173
verses in length) are cited exclusively by Gale ̄n who keeps praising Da ̄mokrate ̄s for his
exactitude, succinctness, and usefulness, and quotes three titles: Puthikos, Philiatros, and
Klinikos.
Ed.: U.C. Bussemaker, Poetarum de re physica et medica reliquiae (1851) 99–132; Sabine Vogt, Servilius
Damokrates. Die iambischen Pharmaka im Corpus Galenicum (in preparation).
H. von Staden, “Gattung und Gedächtnis: Galen über Wahrheit und Lehrdichtung,” in W. Kullmann,
J. Althoff, and M. Asper, edd., Gattungen wissenschaftlicher Literatur in der Antike (1998) 65–94;
BNP 4 (2004) 64, E. Bowie; Sabine Vogt, “‘... er schrieb in Versen, und er tat recht daran.’
Lehrdichtung im Urteil Galens,” in Th. Fögen, ed., Antike Fachtexte/Ancient Technical Texts (2005)
51 – 78.
Sabine Vogt
Damo ̄n (Geog.) (250 BCE – 77 CE)
Wrote a geographical or paradoxographical work from which P 7.17 cites a
paradoxon about the healing sweat of “Ethiopian” folk.
(*)
PTK
Damo ̄n of Athens (465 – 425 BCE)
Son of Damonide ̄s, he was born in the Athenian district of Oa and was greatly admired
by contemporaries as “the most accomplished of men not only in music” (P, Lach.
180d). According to Plato, he was pupil of Prodikos of Keo ̄s – thus, some scholars
think, close to the sophists’ environment, if not even a sophist himself – and later on
teacher and adviser of Perikle ̄s, probably suggesting to him the construction of the public
DAMIS OF KOLOPHO ̄N