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Aretaeus of Cappadocia

Aretaeus of Cappadocia

c. 80 CE–c. 150 CE · Alexandria

Aretaeus was a Greek physician, probably active in the 1st or 2nd century CE, associated with the medical traditions of his day and writing in the old Ionic dialect. He is best remembered for vivid clinical descriptions of diseases such as diabetes, epilepsy, tetanus, and pneumonia in his treatise on the causes, symptoms, and treatment of acute and chronic illnesses. His exact dates are uncertain, but he is regarded as one of the most observant medical writers of antiquity after Hippocrates.

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AlexandriaEgypt

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About Alexandria

Alexandria (al-Iskandariyya) is the great Mediterranean port-city of northern Egypt, founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BCE and a leading centre of learning in antiquity. After the Muslim conquest of Egypt (642) it remained a major commercial and scholarly hub; the Shadhili Sufi Ibn Ata Allah al-Iskandari (d. 1309) took his nisba from the city, and the modernist reformer Muhammad Abduh (d. 1905) was active in Egypt's intellectual life there and in Cairo.

In Alexandria at the same time

Dionysius Periegetes, Appian of Alexandria, Claudius Ptolemaeus, Harpocration, Achilles Tatius, Apollonius Dyscolus

Across the traditions, in Alexandria at the same time

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In the same place & time

Sages whose lives overlapped with Aretaeus of Cappadocia’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.

Across the traditions

The world in their lifetime

Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Aretaeus of Cappadocia’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

Works(4)