The Eclectic school of

medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...

(''Eclectics'', or ''Eclectici'', ) was an ancient school of medicine in

ancient Greece Ancient Greece () was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically r ...

and

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. They were so-called because they selected from each sect the opinions which seemed to them most probable. They seemed to have been a branch of the

Methodic school The Methodic school (''Methodics'', ''Methodists'', or ''Methodici'', ) was a branch of medical thought in ancient Greece and Rome. It arose in reaction to both the Empiric school and the Dogmatic school (sometimes referred to as the Rationalist ...

. They were apparently founded by

Archigenes Archigenes (), an ancient Greco-Syrian physician, who lived in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. Archigenes was the most celebrated of the sect of the Eclectici, and was a native of Apamea in Syria; he practiced at Rome in the time of Trajan, 98–1 ...

. Some of the opinions of these physicians are found in the fragments preserved by

Galen Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus (; September 129 – AD), often Anglicization, anglicized as Galen () or Galen of Pergamon, was a Ancient Rome, Roman and Greeks, Greek physician, surgeon, and Philosophy, philosopher. Considered to be one o ...

Oribasius Oribasius or Oreibasius (; c. 320 – 403) was a Greek medical writer and the personal physician of the Roman emperor Julian. He studied at Alexandria under physician Zeno of Cyprus before joining Julian's retinue. He was involved in Julian's ...

, Aëtius, etc.; but the doctrines they adopted remain unknown. A closely related school was the Episynthetic school (''Episynthetici''), so called because they heaped up in a manner (''episyntithêmi''), and adopted for their own opinions different, and even opposite, schools. It seems to have been founded by Agathinus of Sparta, the pupil of

Athenaeus Athenaeus of Naucratis (, or Nαυκράτιος, ''Athēnaios Naukratitēs'' or ''Naukratios''; ) was an ancient Greek rhetorician and Grammarian (Greco-Roman), grammarian, flourishing about the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd century ...

, and the master of Archigenes, towards the end of the 1st century AD. The only other ancient physician who is mention as having belonged to this sect is

Leonides of Alexandria Leonides of Alexandria (Greek: ) was a Greek early Christian martyr who lived in the second and early third centuries AD. Biography According to the Christian historian Eusebius, Leonides' son was the early Church father Origen.Eusebius Pamp ...

, who may have lived in the 3rd century. Little is known of the opinions of these physicians, or their tenets.

References

* William Smith, (1857), ''

Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities ''A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities'' is an English language encyclopedia first published in 1842. The second, improved and enlarged, edition appeared in 1848, and there were many revised editions up to 1890. The encyclopedia covered law ...

'', pages 387-8, 412-3 Ancient Greek medicine Ancient Roman medicine {{AncientGreece-stub