The genuine works of Hippocrates, Vol. 1 · Hippocrates
CLASSIS IV.
LXI. Ἐπιστολαι--_The Epistles_. No scholar can require to be informed that, since the memorable controversy in this country between the Honorable C. Boyle and the celebrated Dr. Bentley, respecting the authenticity of the Epistles which bear the name of Phalaris, the whole of the “Epistolæ Græcanicæ” have been generally condemned as spurious. Against this judgment I have no intention to protest; but I may be allowed to remark that many ancient works which are usually acknowledged as genuine have not so much external evidence in their favor as these Epistles possess. The Epistles ascribed to Plato, for example, are quoted as genuine by Cicero,[273] and by Diogenes Laertius.[274] Those of Hippocrates, too, are quoted and recognized by Erotian, Soranus, and other ancient authorities. Still, however, as I have stated, I have no intention to stand up against the general opinion of scholars from the Scaligers down to the present time, by which they have been condemned as supposititious; only I contend that, as it is admitted on all hands that they are very ancient,[275] that is to say, that they must have been composed within less than a hundred years after the death of Hippocrates, it is utterly incredible that the Sophists who wrote them, whether for a fraudulent purpose that they might derive profit from them by passing them off for the productions of the great name they bear, or whether for the purpose of displaying their own skill in sustaining an assumed character, should have made them turn upon alleged occurrences in the life of Hippocrates which every person at that early period must have been able to judge whether they were fictitious or not. I see no reason, then, to doubt that the main facts to which these Epistles relate are real, although the Epistles themselves be supposititious.[276]
The second series relates to Democritus, and these must be admitted to be the most interesting of the whole group. Now that Hippocrates visited Abdera, and that he was familiarly acquainted with Democritus, are facts which the most sceptical critic will hardly venture to call in question.[277] But that the Epistles themselves were not written by the physician and philosopher whose name they bear, I readily admit to be probable. Most undoubtedly the letter of Hippocrates, in which he is made to describe his visit to Democritus, however full it may be of curious matters, is written in a style and manner very unlike the well-known characters of the true writings of Hippocrates. Third. The short letter inscribed from Hippocrates to his son Thessalus, contains nothing from which its authenticity or the contrary could be legitimately inferred, only it is destitute of all ancient authority in its favor. In it the father recommends to the son the study of geometry and arithmetic, as a proper preparation to the study of medicine. Fourth. This series, consisting of “The Oration at the Altar,” “The Decree of the Athenians,” and “The Oration of Thessalus, son of Hippocrates,” although now generally regarded as spurious, possess more direct evidence in their favor than any of the others. In fact, they are decidedly recognized as genuine by Erotian. The documents in question have all reference to the services of Hippocrates and his disciples in the pestilence which pervaded Greece during the Peloponnesian war. These services are alluded to by many ancient authorities, as we have shown in the Commentary on PAULUS ÆGINETA, Book II., § 35. In conclusion, I repeat that, supported as the main facts referred to in these documents are by the highest testimony which antiquity can furnish, I cannot but regard the facts as true, although the documents themselves be given up as supposititious.
6. That a few of them, and more especially the two important works “On Internal Affections,” and “On Diseases,” would appear to bear distinct traces of having emanated from the contemporary school of Cnidos. 7. That although the Epistles and certain public documents usually published at the end of the Collection may justly be suspected of being spurious, there is undoubted evidence that they are of very ancient date, and were composed, most probably, within less than a hundred years after the death of Hippocrates, so that there is every reason for believing that they relate to real events in the life of our author, and not to fictitious as some have supposed.
Ideas discussed in this chapter
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