Alexander Philalethes

Who is Alexander Philalethes?

Alexander Philalethes was an ancient Greek physician, whom Priscian called Alexander Amator Veri, and who was probably the same person quoted by Caelius Aurelianus under the name of Alexander Laodicensis. He lived probably towards the end of the 1st century, as Strabo speaks of him as a contemporary. He was a pupil of Asclepiades, succeeded an otherwise unknown Zeuxis as head of a celebrated Herophilean school of medicine, established in Phrygia between Laodicea and Carura, and was tutor to Aristoxenus and Demosthenes Philalethes. He is several times mentioned by Galen and also by Soranus, and appears to have written some medical works, which are no longer extant. The view, once current, that Alexander's Areskonta served as a doxographical basis for such authors as Anonymus Londinensis, Aetius the doxographer, Soranus of Ephesus, and Anonymus Bruxellensis is an inference on the basis of flimsy evidence.