contemporary practicing physicians. If the collection does derive from such a milieu, it
might represent a hospital’s accumulated recipes: other similar collections make explicit
reference to hospitals and that mode of gathering recipes, and the epithet arkhiatros provides
some confirmation.
RE 9.2 (1916) 1800 (#27, 28), H. Gossen; Diels 2 (1907) 2.51.
Alain Touwaide
Io ̄anne ̄s of Antioch, Khrusostomos (“Chrysostom”) (ca 380 – 407 CE)
Born ca 350, student of D T and of L, priested 386, bishop of
Constantinople 397/398, deposed 403, exiled 404, died 407. Wrote numerous ethical trea-
tises, commentaries on Christian scriptures, sermons, letters, and speeches (e.g., those Against
the Jews, 386–387: trans. Harkins, 1999). A work Demonstration of the Construction of the Human
Body, attributed in the margin to “Khrusostomos,” is preserved in MS Ambros. Q94 Sup.
(undated), f.364V (Diels 1907: 2.23). Three Paris MSS – Coislin. 78 (11th c.), f.199, 79
(11th/12th c.), f.79, and Parisin. 912 (14th c.), f.266 (Diels 1907: 2.52) – preserve a work On
Diseases and Doctors attributed to the bishop, possibly in error for I A,
(cf. Diels 1907: 2.51–52, Parisin. 2315, 15th c., f.117, extracts from D-
, and Therapy of Various Diseases, in many MSS). From the 6th c., Byzantine texts
describe him as “golden-tongued” (khruso-stomos) for his sermons, and numerous works were
ascribed to him; received as a saint by the Orthodox and Roman churches.
RE 9.2 (1916) 1800 (#29), H. Gossen; OCD3 329, W. Liebeschütz (no mention of medical writings);
BNP 6 (2005) 890–892 (#4), J. Rist (ditto).
PTK
Io ̄anne ̄s of Philadelpheia, “Lydus” (ca 540 – ca 561 CE)
Imperial bureaucrat and scholar, who served most of his career under Justinian. Perhaps in
543, he was appointed to a chair at the imperial school in Constantinople. Of Lydus’ three
extant works, De me ̄nsibus (Peri me ̄no ̄n), De ostentis (Peri diose ̄meio ̄n), and De magistratibus, only
the first two are scientific. De mens. and De ost. share calendrical interests, and a consistent, if
understated, engagement with philosophical issues. The concept of the motion of heavenly
bodies as a chronological mechanism underlies both treatises. De mens. contains passages
of Pythagorean numerology, probably drawn from a contemporary compendium, while
De ost. is concerned with exegesis of Ptolemaic, and ultimately Platonic and Aristotelian,
world-systems. These concerns are apt for a student (in 511) of the Neo-Platonic
philosopher A (cf. De Mag. 3.26).
Lydus’ natural scientific works, particularly De ost., stand in a tradition of calendrical and
meteorological astrology which continued from the parape ̄gmata of M, E
and E, through A,V and O, to the astronomical didactic writings
of the Renaissance.
The De mens. gives information about the week and months. Book 1 treats the old Roman
calendar; the second book, days of the week; the third, the months; the fourth gives a ritual
calendar similar to O’s Fasti. Of primary natural scientific interest is Book 1, where
Lydus describes Numa’s institution of the solar year.
The De ostentis has been characterised as an astrological compilation, as confirmed
by Lydus’ own list of sources, De ost. 2 ( pp. 4–5 Wa.), citing authors as diverse as
IO ̄ANNE ̄S OF ANTIOCH, KHRUSOSTOMOS (“CHRYSOSTOM”)