BOTANIST, PHARMACOLOGIST, PHYSICIAN, ARTIST

Life
Crateuas was court physician to Mithridates VI Eupator, King of Pontus. He is cited by Nicander and Pliny.


Work
His works included:

"De materia medica": Consulted by Dioscorides, who praised his descriptions, as well as by later pharmacologists. Treats of the effects of minerals on the human body.

"On mineral remedies and aromatics"

"Herbalist": 5 books. Arranged in alphabetical order and illustrated. The drawings in the 6th-century codex in Venice that have been attributed to Dioscorides are probably the work of Crateuas. This is the oldest known treatise on pharmacology. It has not survived, although according to Tschirsch there is a papyrus copy in an unidentified monastery in Macedonia.

The Constantinople Codex of Dioscorides contains a drawing by Crateuas from Varro's "Drawings". Linnaeus gave his name to one genus of plants in the Capparaceae family.