List of ancient doctors
The following is a list of ancient doctors who were known to have practised medicine in some form before AD 700:
Name | Time period | Ethnicity | Known for |
Abascantus | AD 2nd century | Greek | invented antidote against serpent bites |
Adamantius Judaeus | AD 5th century | Greek | |
Aegimus | 5th century BC | Greek | first person who wrote a treatise on the pulse |
Aemilia Hilaria | AD 4th century | Roman | female physician. Wrote books on gynecology and obstetrics. |
Aeschrion of Pergamon | AD 2nd century | Greek | pharmaceutist |
Aëtius of Amida | AD 5th–6th century | Byzantine Greek | |
Agathinus | AD 1st century | Greek | founder of the Eclectic school of medicine |
Albucius | AD 1st century | Roman | wealthy physician, with annual income of 250,000 sesterces |
Alcon | AD 1st century | Greek | surgeon |
Alexander of Tralles | AD 6th century | Byzantine Greek | chief work titled Twelve Books on Medicine |
Amenhotep | 13th century BC | Egyptian | chief physician of the early 19th Dynasty |
Androcydes | 4th century BC | Greek | |
Andromachus | AD 1st century | Greek | |
Anonymus Londinensis | AD 1st century | Greek | author of the physiological work On Medicine |
Antipater | 1st century BC | Greek | author of a work titled On the Soul |
Antipater | AD 2nd century | Greek | gave an account of the morbid symptoms that precede death |
Antiphanes of Delos | AD 2nd century | Greek | "the sole cause of diseases in man was the too great variety of his food" |
Antonius Castor | AD 1st century | Roman | herbal remedies |
Antyllus | AD 2nd century | Greek | surgeon, treatment of aneurysms became standard until the 19th century |
Apollonius Claudius | AD 2nd century | Greek | |
Apollonius Cyprius | AD 1st century | Greek | |
Apollonius Organicus | AD 2nd century | Greek | |
Apollonius Pergamenus | AD 3rd century | Greek | |
Apollonius Pitaneus | AD 1st century | Greek | |
Apollonius Senior | AD 1st century | Greek | |
Apollonius Tarensis | AD 1st century | Greek | |
Apollonius Ther | AD 1st century | Greek | |
Apollonius Glaucus | 3rd century BC | Greek | On Internal Diseases |
Apollonios of Kition | 1st century BC | Greek Cypriot | most important work is On Joints |
Archigenes | AD 1st–2nd century | Greek | very high reputation for his professional skill |
Arcyon | AD 1st century | Greek | surgeon |
Aretaeus | AD 1st century | Greek | general treatise on diseases |
Aristotle | 4th century BC | Greek | |
Asclepiades Pharmacion | AD 1st–2nd century | Greek | skill and knowledge of pharmacy |
Asclepiades of Bithynia | 2nd–1st century BC | Greek | built a new theory of disease |
Aspasia the Physician | AD 4th century | Greek | Female gynecologist |
Athenaeus of Attalia | AD 1st century | Greek | founder of the Pneumatic school of medicine |
Bian Que | 4th century BC | Chinese | earliest known Chinese physician |
Bolus of Mendes | 3rd century BC | Greek | |
Caelius Aurelianus | AD 5th century | Roman | medical translator |
Cassius Felix | AD 3rd century | Roman African | medical writer |
Cato the Elder | 2nd century BC | Roman | |
Aulus Cornelius Celsus | AD 1st century | Roman | De Medicina |
Charaka | 6th–2nd century BC | Indian | one of the principal contributors to Ayurveda |
Saints Cosmas and Damian | AD 3rd century | Arab | persecuted by Diocletian |
Criton of Heraclea | AD 1st–2nd century | Greek | Chief physician of emperor Trajan |
Ctesias | 5th century BC | Greek | |
Damocrates | AD 1st century | Greek | wrote pharmaceutical works in Greek iambic verse |
Demetrius of Apamea | 2nd century BC | Greek | studied sexual organs |
Demosthenes Philalethes | AD 1st century | Greek | author of the Ophthalmicus, the most influential work of ophthalmology in antiquity |
Dexippus of Cos | 4th century BC | Greek | pupil of Hippocrates |
Dieuches | 4th century BC | Greek | Dogmatic school of medicine |
Diocles of Carystus | 4th century BC | Greek | practical medicine, especially diet and nutrition |
Saint Diomedes | AD 3rd century | Greek | arrested by Diocletian |
Pedanius Dioscorides | AD 1st century | Greek | De Materia Medica |
Dong Feng | AD 3rd century | Chinese | |
Erasistratus | 3rd century BC | Greek | founded a school of anatomy in Alexandria |
Erotianus | AD 1st century | Greek | Collection of Hippocratic Words |
Eudemus | AD 1st–2nd century | Greek | two persons, the first the poisoner of Drusus Julius Caesar, the second an acquaintance of Galen |
Saint Fabiola | AD 4th century | Roman | nurse |
Gaius Stertinius Xenophon | AD 1st century | Greek | personal physician of emperor Claudius |
Galen | AD 2nd–3rd century | Greek | developer of anatomy, physiology, pathology, pharmacology, and neurology |
Ge Hong | AD 4th century | Chinese | originator of First Aid in TCM |
Heliodorus | AD 1st century | Greek | wrote on medical technique |
Heraclides of Tarentum | 2nd century BC | Greek | physician of the Empiric school |
Herodotus | AD 1st–2nd century | Greek | Two doctors, the first a Pneumaticist, the second an Empiricist |
Herophilus | 3rd century BC | Greek | deemed to be the first anatomist |
Hicesius | 1st century BC | Greek | head of a medical school established at Smyrna |
Hippocrates | 5th century BC | Greek | "Father of Medicine", wrote the Hippocratic Corpus |
Hua Tuo | AD 2nd century | Chinese | abilities in acupuncture, moxibustion, herbal medicine and medical Daoyin exercises |
Huangfu Mi | AD 3rd century | Chinese | compiled the Canon of Acupuncture and Moxibustion |
Ji Ben | AD 3rd century | Chinese | physician who started a failed rebellion |
Irynachet | 22nd century BC | Egyptian | senior physician of the great house |
Jivaka Komarabhacca | 5th century BC | Indian | personal physician of King Bimbisara and Gautama Buddha |
Leonidas | AD 2nd–3rd century | Greek | surgical writer, provided the first detailed description of a mastectomy |
Leoparda | AD 4th century | Greek | female gynecologist |
Madhava-kara | 8th century BC | Indian | listed diseases along with their causes, symptoms, and complications |
Marcellus Empiricus | AD 4th–5th century | Roman | author of pharmacological compendium De medicamentis |
Marcellus of Side | AD 2nd century | Greek | wrote a long medical poem |
Quintus Gargilius Martialis | AD 3rd century | Roman | writer on horticulture, botany and medicine |
Meges of Sidon | 1st century BC | Greek/Roman | surgeon |
Menemachus | AD 2nd century | Greek | Methodic school of medicine |
Menodotus of Nicomedia | AD 2nd century | Greek | Empiricist |
Metrodora | AD 4th century | Greek | female gynecologist, author of On the Diseases and Cures of Women. |
Merit-Ptah | 27th century BC | Egyptian | early female physician |
Mnesitheus | 4th century BC | Greek | classification of diseases |
Sextius Niger | 1st century BC | Roman | pharmacology |
Oribasius | AD 4th century | Greek | medical writer and person physician of Julian the Apostate |
Paccius Antiochus | AD 1st century | Roman | wealthy commercial physician |
Palladius | AD 6th century | Greek | professor of medicine at Alexandria |
Paul of Aegina | AD 7th century | Byzantine Greek | Medical Compendium in Seven Books |
Penthu | 16th century BC | Egyptian | Chief Physician to Akhenaten |
Peseshet | 25th century BC | Egyptian | one of the earliest known female physicians |
Philagrius of Epirus | AD 3rd century | Greek | medical writers |
Philinus of Cos | 3rd century BC | Greek | reputed founder of the Empiric school |
Philistion of Locri | 4th century BC | Greek | physician and writer of medicine |
Philonides | AD 1st century | Greek | author of De Medicina |
Philoxenus | 3rd century BC | Greco-Egyptian | wrote several volumes on surgery |
Philumenus | AD 3rd century | Greek | |
Plistonicus | 4th–3rd century BC | Greek | wrote a work on anatomy |
Posidonius | 2nd–1st century BC | Greek | polymath |
Praxagoras of Cos | 4th century BC | Greek | theory of circulation |
Aelius Promotus | AD 2nd century | Greek | author of Medicinalium Formularum Collectio |
Qar | 23rd century BC | Egyptian | Chief Physician during the Sixth dynasty |
Raban Gamliel VI | AD 5th century | Hebrew | demonstrated a special remedy of the spleen |
Rabâ-ša-Marduk | 13th century BC | Kassite | |
Rufus of Ephesus | AD 1st–2nd century | Greek | wrote treatises on dietetics, pathology, anatomy, and patient care |
Serenus Sammonicus | AD 3rd century | Roman | author of a didactic medical poem Liber Medicinalis |
Scribonius Largus | AD 1st century | Roman | court physician to the Roman emperor Claudius |
Serapion of Alexandria | 3rd century BC | Greek | member of the Empiric school of medicine |
Sextius Niger | AD 1st century | Roman | author of the pharmacologist work On material |
Sextus Empiricus | AD 2nd century | Roman | |
Sextus Placitus | AD 4th century | Roman | author of Libri medicinae Sexti Placiti Papyriensis ex animalibus pecoribus et bestiis vel avibus Concordantiae |
Shepseskaf-ankh | 25th century BC | Egyptian | Chief Physician during the Fifth dynasty |
Soranus of Ephesus | AD 2nd century | Greek | author of treatise on gynecology and On Acute and Chronic Diseases |
Sushruta | 7th century BC | Indian | author of the treatise The Compendium of Suśruta |
Themison of Laodicea | 1st century BC | Greek | founder of the Methodic school of medicine |
Theodorus Priscianus | AD 4th century | Roman | author of Medical Matters in Four Books |
Theophilus Protospatharius | AD 7th century | Greek | |
Theophrastus | 4th–3rd century BC | Greek | |
Thessalus of Tralles | AD 1st century | Roman | Methodic school of medicine, court physician of Emperor Nero |
Xenocrates of Aphrodisias | AD 1st century | Greek | pharmaceutical writer, including On Useful Things from Living Beings |
Zhang Zhongjing | AD 150—219 | Chinese | made great contributions to the development of Traditional Chinese Medicine |
Zopyrus | AD 1st century | Greek | antidote inventor |