(875 CE) and is the source of S S’s treatise (6th c., ed. Nau 1899), but this
has been criticized (Sezgin, GAS 5 [1974] 180–186; Tihon, Physis 32, 1995: 239) and is at
least questionable: Theo ̄n never mentions it and neither P nor S seem
to know it. On the whole, the generous attribution of many works to Theo ̄n seems to derive
from the increasing celebrity he earned for his commentaries on Ptolemy in the Byzantine
Middle Ages and Renaissance. He thus became a major figure of the commentary tradition,
but this only partly reflects his actual work.
Ed.: A. Rome, Commentaires de Pappus et de Théon d’Alexandrie sur l’Almageste, v.3 Théon d’Alexandrie (1943);
A. Tihon, Le “Grand commentaire” de Théon d’Alexandrie aux “Tables faciles” de Ptolémée: Livre I (1985), ...
Livre II, III (1991).
DSB 13.321, G.J. Toomer; M. Dzielska, Hypatia of Alexandria (1995); Jones (1999); OCD3 375,
M. Folkerts; B. Vitrac, “À Propos des Démonstrations Alternatives et Autres Substitutions de Preuve
Dans les Éléments d’Euclide,” AHES 59 (2004) 1–44.
Alain Bernard
Theo ̄n of Alexandria (Med. I) (130 – 160 CE)
Autodidact ex-athlete who wrote a work on exercise, and a longer work Gymnastrion, both
known only from G, Hygiene (CMG 5.4.2), who praises him as wiser than other such
writers, but chides him for thinking he knew better than H about massage,
Hygiene 2.3–4 (pp. 44–53); cf. 3.3 (p. 80) on exercise, 3.8 (pp. 91–94) on bathing; cf. Thras.
47 (5.898 K. = 3.99 MMH). For athletes as medical writers, cf. F or M.
NP 12/1.376 (#7), V. Nutton.
PTK
Theo ̄n of Alexandria (Med. II) (ca 300 – 500 CE)
Alexandrian physician (arkhiatros), wrote the practical handbook Anthropos (Man), dedicated
to a certain Theoktistos (a rare name attested from the 3rd c. CE: LGPN), surviving only in
Pho ̄tios’ description (Bibl. 220). A list of therapeutic procedures for afflicted body parts
presented in “head to foot” order is followed by a brief section on simple and compound
medicines, along with a compilation of prescriptions from earlier medical writers. He
is probably the same Theo ̄n whose purgative recipe A A quotes (3.58,
CMG 8.1, p. 287). The epitomizing character of his handbook, which Pho ̄tios compares to
O’ Iatrikai sunagogai, suggests a date no earlier than the 4th c. His relation to the
Theo ̄n mentioned by E (Vit. Soph. 499) as a physician successful in Gaul and a
contemporary of I S is indeterminable.
RE 5A.2 (1934) 2082 (#17), K. Deichgräber; KP 5.716 (#7), K. Ziegler; NP 12/1.378 (#9), V. Nutton.
Keith Dickson
THEO ̄N OF ALEXANDRIA (MED. II)