Coan promotions and the authorship of the Presbeutikos

This article argues that the Presbeutikos Thessalou (Ambassadorial Oration of Thessalus), a seminal text of the Hippocratic pseudepigrapha, is an excerpt of the lost third century BCE historical work Ta Kôaka (History of Cos) of Macareus. It further argues that the rhetoric of the speech derives from ambassadorial speeches delivered by Coan embassies, of which Macareus was a member, on behalf of the Coan Asclepieion. It also suggests that the Presbeutikos' companion in the pseudepigrapha, the Epibomios (Speech from the Altar), may have a similar origin in Macareus' historical work.