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DaTE oF DIOSCORIDES 139 
’ Dioscorides, a Cilician * Greek, the most precise authority for 
plant descriptions previous to Bock, seems to have written a little 
later than Aretaeus, perhaps ten years, or about 65 A. D., cer- 
tainly before the death of Nero in 68 A. D. Some have placed 
Dioscorides later than Pliny, even at 100 A. D. or later. But 
Pliny probably meant Dioscorides when he spoke of “certain re- 
cent writings on medical plants’; and he seems to have made 
about 200 quotations from him, though without giving his name. 
Hence Dioscorides should be assigned a date just older than 
Pliny. That the date was in Nero’s reign seems evident ; for— 
1. Dioscorides’ five books De materia medica bear a dedica- 
tion to a famed physician of Nero’s reign, Areus Asclepiadeus.t 
2. Dioscorides Anazarbeus (unless it could be proved that the 
less known Dioscorides Phaca was meant) was cited by name of 
Dioscorides, in Erotian’s Vocabulary of Hippocrates, dedicated to 
Andromachus,} Nero’s court-physician. 
3. The Euporista, attributed to Dioscorides Anazarbeus, was 
also dedicated ¢ to Andromachus,§ either by Dioscorides himself 
or by some one who sought reputation under his name and used 
his probable date. 
We assume with Sprengel, Smith, etc., that the Andromachus 
meant was the elder and better known physician of the name, who 
died probably not later than 66 A. D., as he had been succeeded by 
his son Andromachus before Nero's death in 68. It follows that 
65 A. D. is the nearest date to Pliny at which it appears probable 
that Dioscorides could have completed his writings. 
There were at least three medical writers named Dioscorides ; 
the great Dioscorides Anazarbeus, not later than 65.A..D4 pre- 
* Native of Anazarbus, in Cilicia. He is sometimes called Tarseus, from Tarsus, 
the nearest large city. 
+ Friend of Licinius whose father Lecanius Bassus was a consul under Nero. 
t There were two court-physicians to Nero named Andromachus ; the elder was 
| still in use after 1800 
