Claudius Agathemerus

Claudius Agathemerus (Ancient Greek: Κλαύδιος Ἀγαθήμερος) was an ancient Greek physician who lived in the 1st century. He was born in the Lacedaemon, and was a pupil of the philosopher Cornutus, in whose house he became acquainted with the poet Persius about 50 AD.^[1] In the old editions of Suetonius he is called Agaternus, a mistake which was first corrected by Reinesius,^[2] from the epitaph upon him and his wife, Myrtale, which is preserved in the Marmora Oxoniensia and the Greek Anthology.^[3] The apparent anomaly of a Roman praenomen being given to a Greek may be accounted for by the fact which we learn from Suetonius,^[4] that the Spartans were the hereditary clients of the gens Claudia.^[5][6]

Tombstone, the doctor Claudius Agathemerus and his wife Myrtale, from Rome, about AD 100, Ashmolean Museum

For the geographer with this name, see Agathemerus.

References

1. Pseudo-Sueton. vita Persii
2. Syntagma Inscript. Antiq. p. 610
3. vol iii. p. 381. § 224, ed. Tauclm.
4. Suetonius, Tiberius 6
5. C.G. Kühn, Additam. ad Elench. Medic. Vet. a J.A. Fabricio, in "Biblioth. Graeca" exhibit.
6. Greenhill, William Alexander (1867), "Agathemerus, Claudius", in Smith, William (ed.), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. 1, Boston, p. 62, archived from the original on 2010-12-13, retrieved 2007-12-31{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). "Agathemerus, Claudius". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.