Heraclides of Tarentum

Heraclides of Tarentum (Greek: Ἡρακλείδης ὁ Ταραντῖνος; fl. 3rd – 2nd century BC), was a Pyrrhonist philosopher and Greek physician of the Empiric school who wrote commentaries on the works of Hippocrates. Diogenes Laërtius said that he taught Pyrrhonism to Aenesidemus, who revitalized the school.

He came from Tarentum, was a pupil of Mantias,[1] and probably lived in the 3rd or 2nd century BC, somewhat later than Apollonius Empiricus and Glaucias.[2] He belonged to the Empiric school,[3] and wrote some works on Materia medica, which are very frequently quoted by Galen, but of which only a few fragments remain. Galen speaks of him in high terms of praise, saying that he was an author who could be entirely depended upon, as he wrote in his works only what he had himself found from his own experience to be correct.[4] He was also one of the first persons who wrote a commentary on all the works in the Hippocratic Corpus.[5] He is several times quoted by Caelius Aurelianus and other ancient authors.

Notes

1. Galen, De Compos. Medicam. sec. Gen., ii. 1, vol. xiii.
2. Celsus, De Med., i. praef.
3. Celsus, De Med., i. praef.; Galen, De Meth. Med., ii. 7, vol. x.
4. Galen, De Compos. Medicam. sec. Gen., iv. 7, vol. xiii.
5. Galen, Comment. in Hippocr. De Humor., i. prooem. 24, vol. xvi.

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). "^{article name needed}". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.