Chap. 38] GEO:»rETRT AND ARCHITECTUEE. 183 



much skill, that, although the sight was lost, there was no 

 defect to be seen.*^ Asclepiades of Prusa, however, acquired 

 the greatest fame of all — he founded a new sect, treated with 

 disdain the promises of King Mithridates conveyed to him 

 by an embassy, discovered a method of successfully treating 

 diseases by wine,^- and, breaking in upon the funeral cerem.ony, 

 saved the life of a man, who was actually placed"'" on the fune- 

 ral pile. He rendered himself, however, more celebrated than 

 all, by staking his reputation as a physician against Fortune 

 herself, and asserting that he did not wish to be so much as 

 looked upon as a physician, if he should ever happen in any 

 way to fall sick ; and he won his wager, for he met his death 

 at an extreme old age, by falling down stairs.*^ 



CHAP. 38. — GEOMETET AND AECHITECTUllE. 



M. Marcellus, too, at the taking of Syracuse, offered a re- 

 markable homage to the sciences of geometry and mechanics, 

 by giving orders that Archimedes was to be the only person 

 who should not be molested ; his commands, however, were 

 disregarded, in consequence of the imprudence of one of the 

 soldiers.*^ Chersiphron, also, the Cnossian,*^ was rendered fa- 



mitted to depart, howeA'er, when the city was taken, with one garment to 

 each person. 



*^ This accident occurred to Philip, at the siege of Methone, of which 

 we have a brief account in Diodorus Siculus, B. xvi. c. 7, and in Justin, 

 B. vii. 0. 6 ; but neither of these authors makes any mention of Critobulus. 

 Quintus Curtius, B. ix. c. 5, informs us, that Critobulus exhibited great skill 

 in relieving Alexander the Great from the effects of a dangerous wound, 

 which he received in India ; but he does not refer to the fact here men- 

 tioned. — B, 



^- At the present day, this mode of treatment would have figured as the 

 "wine-cure." 



« See B. xxvit c. 8. 



** Pliny again speaks of Asclepiades, in B. xxvi. c. 7, and B. xxix. c. 5. 

 The anecdote respecting the man who was saved from the funeral pile is 

 referred to by Celsus, B. ii. c. 6.— B. Pliny says, in B. xxvi. c. 7, that 

 Asclepiades first came to B-ome as a teacher of rhetoric, and that being un- 

 successful, he turned his attention to medicine. Bruce, the Abyssinian 

 traveller, also met his death by falling down stairs. Rabelais, in the pro- 

 logue to his Fourth Book, refers to this peculiar death of Asclepiades. 



*5 This is related more at large by Yal. Maximus, B. viii. c. 7, and by 

 Plutarch.— B. 



*s Mentioned in B. xxxvi. c. 31. 



