Andro'machus
（
*)Andro/maxos).
1. Commonly called " the Elder," to distinguish him from his son of the same name, was born in Crete, and was physician to Nero, A. D. 54-68.
He is principally celebrated for having been the first person on whom the title of " Archiater" is known to have been conferred (
Dict. of Ant. s. v. Archiater).
Works
Medicinal Formula in a Greek Elegiac poem
He is known for having been the inventor of a very famous compound medicine and antidote, which was called after his name " Theriaca Andromachi," which long enjoyed a great reputation, and which retains its place in some foreign Pharmacopoeias to the present day. (
Dict. of Ant. s. v. Theriaca.) Andromachus has left us the directions for making this strange mixture in a Greek elegiac poem, consisting of one hundred and seventy-four lines, and dedicated to Nero. Galen has inserted it entire in two of his works (
De Antid. 1.6, and
De Ther. ad Pis. 100.6. vol. xiv. pp. 32-42), and says, that Andromachus chose this form for his receipt as being more easily remembered than prose, and less likely to be altered.
Editions
The poem has been published in a separate form by Franc. Tidicaeus, Tiguri, 1607, 4to., with two Latin translations, one in prose and the other in verse; and again by
J. S. Leinker, Norimb. 1754, fol. It is also inserted in the first volume of Ideler's Physici et Medici Graeci Minores, Berol. 8vo. 1841.
Translations
There is a German translation in E. W. Weber's Elegische Dichter der Hellenen, Frankfort, 1826, 8vo.
Work on Pharmacy attributed to him
Some persons suppose him to be the author of a work on pharmacy, but this is generally attributed to his son, Andromachus the Younger.
