The Encyclopedia of Ancient Natural Scientists: The Greek tradition and its many heirs

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Egnatius (of Spain?) (ca 100 – 50 BCE?)


Wrote a poem De Rerum Natura in at least three books, of which M (Sat. 6.5.2, 12)
preserves two very short passages: in fr. 1 Blänsdorf, Egnatius speaks about metal working,
and in fr. 2, he describes the Moon (Phoebe ̄) setting or disappearing at dawn. Egnatius
lived between Accius and V (150– 50 BCE), and probably was a contemporary of
L. Bergk and Baehrens identified him with the Egnatius Celtiber mentioned by
Catullus (Carm. 37 and 39), a rather unlikely conjecture. It is also impossible to ascertain if
Egnatius were an imitator of Lucretius or wrote independently.


Ed.: N. Marinone, “I frammenti di Egnazio,” in Poesia Latina in frammenti (1974) 179–199; FLP 147 –
148.
BNP 4 (2004) 842 (#I.4), P.L. Schmidt.
Claudio Meliadò


Eire ̄naios (250 BCE – 25 CE)


Pharmacist whose remedy for uitiligo (psoriasis) comprised alkuoneion, natron, cumin, and
dried fig leaves, pounded with vinegar, to be applied under sunlight and washed off to
prevent corrosion (C 5.28.19C).


RE 9.2 (1916) 2032 (#3), H. Gossen.
GLIM


Ekhekrate ̄s of Phleious (400 – 360 BCE)


Student of P and of E (D L 8.46; I VP
251, 267), he described So ̄crate ̄s’ last day to Phaedo, and sympathized with the view that
the soul “is a kind of harmony” (P, Phaedo 57a, 88d–e). A later legend suggested that
Plato visited Ekhekrate ̄s at Lokri (pseudo-Plato Epist. 9 [358b]; C Fin. 5.87; Val. Max.
8.7. ext.3).


DK 53; BNP 4 (2004) 781 (#2), C. Riedweg; OCD3 501 C. Roueché.
GLIM


Ekphantos of Surakousai (400 – 350 BCE?)


Ekphantos belongs to a group of later Pythagoreans active in Surakousai in the first part
of the 4th c. (DK 50–51, 55). As distinct from other later Pythagoreans, Ekphantos’

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