the cost of shipping and handling (20). His treatise may also contain the earliest mention of
the donkey mill – the first mill of any kind to dispense with human labor as its main power
source (10).
There is little to Cato’s work that by Greek standards might be deemed scientific: only the
barest of descriptions of plants and animals, for example, and almost nothing about phys-
ical causes. Yet it treats certain aspects of the farm, particularly the use of slaves, animals,
and equipment, with a degree of detail found in no other surviving author. His main
importance was as a pioneer, who, in the words of C, 1.1.12, “taught agriculture
to speak Latin.”
E. Brehaut, Cato the Censor on Farming (1933); K.D. White, Roman Farming (1970); A. Astin, Cato the Censor
(1978); OCD3 1224 – 1225, M.S. Smith; BNP 1 (2002) 368–372 (§B.1, 369–370), E. Christmann; BNP
3 (2003) 20–23 (#1), W. Kierdorf.
Philip Thibodeau
Porphurios (Geog.) (ca 350 – 450 CE?)
Wrote a geographical work on Asia Minor and the lands around Constantinople, cited by
the R C, 2.16 (Asia Minor), 4.3–4.7 (Bosporos, Dardania, Thrake ̄,
and Musia). The Ravenna Cosmography calls him miserus and nefandissimus, confusing him
with the anti-Christian Neo-Platonist. Cf. I G. and L G.
(*)
PTK
Porphurios (Med.) (300 – 1000 CE?)
In iatrosophic therapeutic collections contained in two late-Byzantine MSS (Oxford,
Bodleian, Barocc. 150 and Paris, BNF, suppl. gr. 1202), and in the scholia of another late-
Byzantine MS (Paris, BNF, graecus 2183; mid 14th c.), credited with information on some
materia medica and medicines (for example, in Paris, BNF, suppl. gr. 1202, f. 16, a fragment on
oxuphoinikon). Paris, BNF, graecus 2183 was probably copied and used in the Krale ̄ hospital in
Constantinople. The formularies preserving Porphurios’ fragments were probably developed
in the context of Byzantine hospitals, especially common after 1200, and amalgamate for-
mulae extracted from authors such as D, G, and the encyclopedias of
O, A A and P A, or anonymous physicians. Thus,
although P T supposedly wrote on vegetarianism and included medical
considerations in his philosophical works, he is probably not our author.
Diels 2 (1907) 86.
Alain Touwaide
Porphurios of Tyre (ca 260 – 305 CE)
Platonist philosopher. Born ca 234 in Tyre in Phoenicia, he changed his original Semitic
name “Malkhos” (king) to “Porphurios” to celebrate his native city famous for purple (por-
phura). He studied with L in Athens before joining P in Rome (263–269),
becoming one of his most loyal students. On Plo ̄tinos’ advice, Porphurios left for Sicily
to overcome depression; his later activity is poorly documented. His students, for whom
he wrote some texts, included the Roman aristocrat Chrysaorius and perhaps also
I, but whether he had established a school is unclear.
PORPHURIOS (GEOG.)