Crateuas

Crateuas was a Greek physician and herbalist (rhizotomos, "root-cutter") active around the early first century BCE, traditionally associated with the court of Mithridates VI of Pontus. He is best known for compiling an illustrated herbal — a pharmacological work pairing descriptions of medicinal plants with painted figures — which is among the earliest known botanical works with illustrations. His writings survive only in fragments, chiefly through later authors such as Dioscorides and Pliny the Elder, who cite and praise him. He is regarded as a pioneer in the visual documentation of medicinal plants.