I
Iako ̄bos Psukhrestos (457 – 474 CE)
D, Philosophical History 5.84 ( pp. 206–213 Athan.), attests most fully to the politi-
cal, intellectual, and medical prominence of Iako ̄bos “The Cooler” (from his habit of
prescribing cold baths for a number of diseases) in the reign of Leo the Thrakian (457– 474
CE); the Souda (I-12, 13), John Malalas’ Chronicle, Marcellinus’ Chronicle, the Chronichon Pascale
284 – 628 AD, and A T add details regarding the remarkable career
of Iako ̄bos and his father H. An avowed pagan, closely associated with Neo-
Platonists in Athens (including P L, whom he treated for a stomach
ailment: Dam., 84J ), Iako ̄bos was so renowned for his medical skills, the equal of Askle ̄pios,
that the sculptor Zeuxis produced idealized statues of him. “Iako ̄bos persuaded his wealthy
patients to alleviate the poverty-stricken: he took no payment for his services, being quite
satisfied with his salary as arkhomenos” (Dam. 84G). In 462 CE, Iako ̄bos, summoned to the
emperor’s bedside to cure Leo’s high fever, seated himself without the proper signal from
Leo, and laid his “healing hands” on his royal patient, scandalizing observers. Returning
later, he explained “that he had not acted arrogantly but had done this in accordance with
the practices of the ancient founders of his discipline” (Marcellinus, Chronicle: Leonis Aug. II
Solius [sic; viz. 462 CE]: Croke 1995, pp. 23–24). When the wealthy and learned Isokasios
was accused of paganism (467 CE), Iako ̄bos’ sensational defense achieved Isokasios’ acquit-
tal through his close association with the emperor (that Isokasios underwent baptism may
have helped: Malalas, Chronicle, and Chronicon Paschale).
Fame did not assure good preservation of biographical detail; our sources suggest Iako ̄bos
was born either in Damascus, or Alexandria, or at Argive Drepanon. For two decades he
studied the Art of Medicine under his father before going to Constantinople, where father
and son prescribed baths, diet, and purgatives, generally avoiding cautery, surgery, and
phlebotomy (Dam. 84D).
Alexander of Tralleis has enormous respect for Iako ̄bos Psukhrestos, writing that he was
a “great man possessed of the most divine virtues in the practice of the Art” (5.4 [On Coughs]
= 2.163 Puschm.), even while praising how Iako ̄bos had improved the traditional com-
position of the “Secret Cough-Medicine” (cf. N’ Secret Remedy), judiciously com-
bining licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra L.), tragacanth-gum (Astragalus gummifer Labill.), high-grade
flour, and lettuce-juice. Highly significant are two dual-ingredient recipes to treat gout (Alex.
Trall., Twelve Books 12: Podagra = 2.565, 571 Puschm.), both among the simplest of the
recipes in Podagra, and both including hermodaktulon, the autumn crocus, Colchicum autumnale
L., the source of colchicine, the fundamental drug of modern gout-therapy. Iako ̄bos was also