Diosco'rides DIOSCORIDES Phacas
2. DIOSCORIDES PHACAS (
Φακᾶς) a physician who was one of the followers of Herophilus (Galen,
Gloss. Hippocr. prooem. vol. xix. p. 63), and lived in the second or first century B. C.
According to Suidas (
s. v. Διοσκ.), who, however, confounds him with Dioscorides of Anazarba, he lived at the court of Cleopatra in the time of Antony, B. C. 41-30, and was surnamed Phacas on account of the moles or freckles on his face.
He is probably the same physician who is mentioned by Galen (
Gloss. Hippoer. s. v. Ἰνδικόν, vol. xix. p. 105), and Paulus Aegineta (
De Re Med. 4.24), as a native of Alexandria.
He wrote several medical works, which are not now extant. (Suid.
l.c.; Erotian.
Gloss. Hippocr. p. 8.)