Maciej Kokoszko, Zofia Rzeźnicka, Krzysztof Jagusiak, Konrad Tadajczyk

Polyarchion (πολυάρχιον) in the medicine of Antiquity and Byzantium
2024-02-29

The present research is devoted to the history of a medicine used by the Ancient and Byzantine Mediterranean societies , known in the local medical tradition as polyarchion (πολυάρχιον).

The aim of the research is to establish the origins of this medicine, demonstrate various prescriptions for polyarchion and its interconnections, retrieve the method by which the medicine was prepared, reconstruct its form, show its scope of action and explain the reasons for its application in individual therapeutic procedures. Moreover, on the basis of available non-medical source materials, the authors tried to determine the cost of the drug, which, in turn, allowed them to hypothesize on the group of its users.The article uses a heuristic analysis of medical treatises composed in Antiquity and Byzantium, such as Gynaeciorum libri by Soran of Ephesus (1st–2nd c. AD), De compositione medicamentorum secundum locos and De compositione medicamentorum per genera by Galen of Pergamon (2nd–3rd c. AD), Collectiones medicae and Synopsis ad Eustathium filium by Orybasius (4th–5th c. AD), Libri medicinales by Aetius of Amida (6th c. AD), Therapeutica by Alexander of Tralles (6th c. AD), the collection of prescriptions entitled De mulierum morbis uteri, the authorship of which is attributed to Metrodora (after the 6th c. AD), Epitome by Paul of Aegina (7th c. AD) and Dynameron by Nicolaus Myrepsus (13th c. AD). Furthermore, the authors supplement their research with non-medical material, i.e., selected letters by John Chrysostom (4th–5th c. AD), the Patriarch of Constantinople, which testifies to the fact that he used polyarchion himself.

Polyarchion was a medicine used in the Mediterranean area from the 1st century BC, and was in circulation as late as  the 13th century AD. It was considered effective in the treatment of gastric problems. The researched medical texts show that the remedy was prepared in many ways and evolved by adding more ingredients to an initially simple formula. Regardless of the number of ingredients included in the prescriptions, a set of core components determined the drug’s effectiveness. These were selected in accordance with the prevailing theory of materia medica. Due to its high price, the discussed drug was available only to the wealthy and privileged. Non-medical sources allow us to assume that polyarchion was produced in quantities tailored to individual patients’ needs and that it was available only in large urban centers such as Antioch or Constantinople.

Keywords: history of medical literature, history of pharmacy, history of medicine, polyarchion.

© Farm Pol, 2023, 79(12): 757–765