Zopyrus (physician)

Zopyrus (; 1st-century BCE) was a surgeon at Alexandria, and the tutor of Apollonius of Citium and Posidonius.Apoll. Cit. ap. Dietz, Schol. in Hippocr. et Gal. vol. i. p. 2 He invented an antidote, which he recommended to Mithridates VI of Pontus, and wrote a letter to that king, begging to be allowed to test its efficacy on a criminal.Galen, De Antid. ii. 8, vol. xiv. p. 150 Another somewhat similar composition he prepared for one of the Ptolemies.Celsus, v. 23. § 2 Some of his medical formulae are quoted and mentioned by various ancient authors, viz. Caelius Aurelianus,Caelius Aurelianus, De Morb. Chron. ii. 14, v. 10 Oribasius,Oribasius, Coll. Medic. xiv. 45, 50, 52, 56, 58, 61, 64 Aetius,Aetius, ii. 4. 57, iii. 1. 31, iv. 2. 74 Paul of Aegina,Paul of Aegina, vii. 11 Marcellus Empiricus,Marcellus Empiricus, De Medicam. c. 22 and Nicolaus Myrepsus.Nicolaus Myrepsus, i. 291 PlinyPliny, Hist. Nat. xxiv. 87 and DioscoridesDioscorides, iii. 99. vol. i. p. 446 mention that a certain plant was called zopyron, perhaps after his name. Nicarchus satirizes a physician named Zopyrus in one of his epigrams.Anthol. Gr. xi. 124 Not to be confused with Zopyron.

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