Philoti'mus
（
*Filo/timos), an eminent Greek physician, a pupil of Praxagoras (Galen,
De Aliment. Facult. 1.12, vol. vi. p. 509), and a fellowpupil of Herophilus (id.
De Meth. Med. 1.3, vol. x. p. 28).
He was also a contemporary of Erasistratus (id.
Comment. in Hippocr. "Aphor." 6.1, vol. xviii. pt. i. p. 7), and is quoted by Heracleides of Tarentuin (ap. Gal.
Comment. in Hippocr. "De Artic." 4.40, vol. xviii. pt. i. p. 736), and therefore must probably have lived in the fourth and third centuries B. C. Celsus mentions him as one of the eminent physicians of antiquity (
De Medic. 8.20, p. 185); and he is quoted by several of the ancient medical writers, viz. by Caelius Aurelianu (
De Morb. Acut. 2.16,
De Morb. Chron. 1.4. pp. 115, 323), Oribasius (
Med. Coll. 2.69, 4.10, 5.32, pp. 236, 255, 279), and Aetius
1 (3.3, 12, p. 555), and very frequently by Galen.
He belonged to the medical sect of the Dogmatici or Logici (Galen,
De Ven. Sect. adv. Erasistr. cc. 5, 6, vol. xi. pp. 163, 169; Cramer's
Anecd. Graeca Paris. vol. i. p. 395), and wrote several medical works, of which only a few fragments remain. Athenaeus quotes a work on Cookery,
?οψαρτυτικός (7.81, p. 308), and another on Food,
Περὶ Τροφῆς, consisting of at least thirteen books (3.20, 24, pp. 81, 82): this latter work is several times quoted by Galen (
De Aliment. Facult. 1.11, 3.30, 31, vol. vi. pp. 507, 720, 726, et alibi.). Some modern critics suppose that he wrote a commentary on Hippcrates,
Κατ᾽ Ἰητπεῖον,
De Officina Medici; but this is a mistake, as M. Littre observes (
Oeuvres d'Hippocr. vol. i. pp. 82, 367), for Galen onld says that he composed a work on the same subject, and with the same title. (
Comment. in Hippocr. "De Ofie. Med." i. praef., 5, vol. xviii. pt. ii. pp. 629, 666.)
In an anatomical treatise which he wrote he pronounced the brain and heart to tb useless organs (Galen,
De Usu Part. 8.3, vol. iii. p. 625), and the former to be merely an excessive development and offshoot (
υπεραύδημα καὶ βλάστημα) of the spinal marrow. (
Ibid. 100.12, p. 671.) Philotimus is quoted in various other parts of Galen's writings (see Fabr.
Bibl. Gr. vol. iii. p. 583, ed. vet.), and Plutarch relates an anecdote of him. (
De Recta Rat. Aud. 100.10; De Adulat. et Amico, c. 35.)
He is also quoted by the Scholiast on Homer (
λ. 424).
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W.A.G]
