Apollonios of Kition

Apollonios was a physician (c. 60 BC) belonging to the Empiricist school of thought. He studied medicine in Alexandria under the surgeon Zopyros, but he lived in Kition - modern day Larnaca(1). Another theory is that he studied medicine in Kition (2), although it is not clear whether a medical school existed at the time.

Apollonios wrote several books on medicine but his most important (and the one that survived) is "Peri Arthron" (On Joints) which is a study of the teachings of Hippocrates on the subject. This book was written in Cyprus(3). A copy of this work was found in the library of the Byzantine doctor Nikitas, and it is now kept in Florence. The book was written under the patronage of the king Ptolemaius (Ptolemy) c81-58 BC. It is divided into three sections written at different times. The first part discusses the dislocations of the shoulder, the second discusses those of the elbow, wrist, jaw and spine, whereas the third and final part discusses the dislocations of the lower limbs. The book includes 30 hand-painted pictures, believed to be copies made from the original book written by Hippocrates himself (2, page 11).

References

1. Strabon. "Geographia" 14,6.3

2. From the "History of Cypriot Medicine," Kypros Chrysanthis, Nicosia 1983

3. Apollonios of Kition, Peri Arthron, p. 23, ed. Schone