A'ndreas
（
*)Andre/as), the name of several Greek physicians, whom it is difficult to distinguish from each other. The Andreas Comes, quoted several times by Aetius (which title means
Comes Archiatrorum), was certainly the latest of all, and probably lived shortly before Aetius himself (that is, in the fourth or fifth century after Christ), as the title was only introduced under the Roman emperors. (
Dict. of Ant. s. v. Archiater.) If, for want of any positive data, all the other passages where the name Andreas occurs be supposed to refer to the same person (which may possibly be the case), he was a native of Carystus in Euboea (Cassius Iatros.
Problem. Phys. § 58), the son of Chrysar or Chrysaor (
ὁ το̂υ Χρύσαρος or
Χρυσάορος), if the name be not corrupt (Galen,
Explicat. Vocum Hippocr. s. v. Ἰνδικόν, vol. xix. p. 105), and one of the followers of Herophilus. (Cels.
De Medic. v. Praef. p. 81; Soran.
De Arte Obstetr. 100.48. p. 101.)
He was physician to Ptolemy Philopator, king of Egypt, and was killed while in attendance on that prince, shortly before the battle of Raphia (B. C. 217), by Theodotus the Aetolian, who had secretly entered the tent with the intent to murder the king. (
Plb. 5.81.)
He wrote several medical works, of which nothing remains but the titles, and a few extracts preserved by different ancient authors.
He was probably the first person who wrote a treatise on hydrophobia, which he called
Κυνόλυσσος. (Caelius Aurel.
De Morb. Acut. 3.9, p. 218.)
In one of his works
Περὶ τῆς Ἰατρικῆς Γενεαλογίας On Medical Genealogy, he is said by Soranus, in his life of Hippocrates (Hippocr.
Opera, vol. iii. p. 851), to have given a false and scandalous account of that great physician, saying that he had been obliged to leave his native country on account of his having set fire to the library at Cnidos; a story which, though universally considered to be totally unfounded, was repeated with some variations by Varro (in Pliny,
Plin. Nat. 29.2) and John Tzetzes (
Chil. vii.
Hist. 155, in Fabricius,
Biblioth. Graeca, vol. xii. p. 681, ed. vet.), and was much embellished in the middle ages. (See
Hist. of the Seven Wise Masters, in Ellis's
Specimens of Early English Metrical Romances, vol. iii. p. 43.) Eratosthenes is said to have accused Andreas of plagiarism, and to have called him
Βιβλιαίγισθος,
the Aegisthus (or
Adulterer)
of Books. (
Etymol. Magn. s. v. Βιβλιαίγισθος.)
The name occurs in several ancient authors (Pliny,
Plin. Nat. 20.76,
22.49,
32.27; St. Epiphanius,
Adv. Haeres. i. 50.3, p. 3, ed. Colon. 1682; Schol.
ad Aristoph. "
Aves," 5.267; Schol.
ad Nicand. "
Theriaca," vv. 684, 823, &c.), but no other facts are related of him that need be noticed here. (Le Clerc,
Hist. de la Méd ; Fabric.
Bibl. Graec. vol. xiii. p. 57, ed. vet.; Haller,
Biblioth. Botan., Chirurg., and
Medic. Pract. ; Sprengel,
Hist. de la Méd.; Isensee,
Geschichte der Med.)
[
W.A.G]
