DiotimosReading Desk

Biography and chronology

Acron

Ἄκρωνος (Akrōnos); Ἄκρων (Akrōn); Acrone Agragantino

Acron is the physician’s name; the Life exploits its similarity to Greek words for a summit or highest point.

From the book

Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II

Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026

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Orientation

At a Glance

  • The wordAcron is the physician’s name; the Life exploits its similarity to Greek words for a summit or highest point.
  • In this workIn Diogenes, Acron seeks a civic plot for a family monument on the basis of medical distinction.
  • In this editionThe Greek πατρώιου μνήματος can evoke an ancestral or paternal memorial; the English fixes it as a monument to his father.
  • A place to readConnects the monument dispute, equality, and the punning couplet.

Meaning

Acron is the physician’s name; the Life exploits its similarity to Greek words for a summit or highest point. The repeated “topmost” language in the epigram turns an eminent doctor’s name into a joke about pre-eminence.

Use in the book

In Diogenes, Acron seeks a civic plot for a family monument on the basis of medical distinction. Empedocles blocks the request through an argument about equality and a mocking couplet whose authorship is itself disputed. The separate medical dossier complicates any simple picture of personal hostility. Pliny says Acron was commended by Empedocles’ authority, while the Suda connects both men with teaching at Athens and records medical writings in Doric. Plutarch reports Acron’s reputation for directing fires beside the sick during the Athenian plague. These notices can coexist as different traditions of competition, endorsement, and civic status; they need not be harmonized into a single personal relationship. Acron’s inclusion is especially useful because it gives medical accomplishment a political setting: expertise could be invoked to request honor, and equality could be invoked to refuse it.

Places to read

  1. A 1 §§ 64–66 (biography)2Diogenes Laertius VIII 65. Connects the monument dispute, equality, and the punning couplet.
  2. A 3 (testimony)Pliny, Natural History; The Suda, under “Acron”. Presents medical authority and a catalogue of writings.
  3. A 3 (testimony)Plutarch, On Isis and Osiris. Reports the treatment-by-fire reputation during plague.

Translation in this edition

The Greek πατρώιου μνήματος can evoke an ancestral or paternal memorial; the English fixes it as a monument to his father. The edition’s equation of noting winds with membership in a Pneumatist school is not established by the quoted Suda notice.