Filistione di Locri

About this book

The ancient sources preserved little information on Philistion, who lived between the end of the V century and the first half of the IV century BC. Born in Locroi Epizephyrioi in Magna Graecia, Philistion was the personal physician of the tyrant Dionisius II and, perhaps, Dionysius I at Syracuse, where he got to know the most eminent Greek intellectuals, such as Plato. His familiarity with Plato confined the physician in the shadow of the great Athenian philosopher, whose medical doctrines outlined in the Timaeus likely derived from Philistion?s work. By considering all the remaining testimonies, this monograph inserts Philistion in a precise historical context and gives back his true significance. The outcome is an autonomous and important figure emerging in the cultural panorama of the time and staying alongside Hippocrates and the best physicians of the Antiquity.