[Physician contemporaries of Hippocrates: problems in identifying the physician known as Herodicus]

In order to redirect the research into the physicians in Hippocrates' times, I have undertaken a complete review of all the sources about the physicians named Herodicus. The Anonymus Londiniensis (P. Lond. gr. inv. 137), who is by now the main source of information about the physicians prior or contemporary to Hippocrates, quotes Herodicus of Cnidus, otherwise unknown (IV 40-V 34), and another Herodicus (IX 20-36), who was identified with Herodicus of Selymbria (quoted by Platon) by the first editor H. Diels. The result of the analysis of the tradition shows clearly, I think, that Diels' identification of Herodicus of Selymbria is not based on any serious ground; that a more ancient Herodicus (of Cnidus), prior to Hippocrates and classified as founder of dietetics by a strictly medical tradition, has been confused with and obscured by Herodicus of Selymbria, overwhelmingly famous because of Plato's dialogues; and that in some passages the name Herodicus is an ancient corruption of that of the sophist Prodicus.