Criton of Heraclea

Heraclea

-Ancient cities:* Heraclea Cybistra, Konya Province, Turkey* Heracleia by Latmus, near Lake Bafa, Turkey* Heraclea Lucania, Lucanian district of southern Italy...

was a 2nd century (c.100 AD) Greek chief physician and procurator

Procurator (Roman)

A procurator was the title of various officials of the Roman Empire, posts mostly filled by equites . A procurator Augusti was the governor of the smaller imperial provinces...

 of Roman Emperor Trajan

Trajan

Trajan , was Roman Emperor from 98 to 117 AD. Born into a non-patrician family in the province of Hispania Baetica, in Spain Trajan rose to prominence during the reign of emperor Domitian. Serving as a legatus legionis in Hispania Tarraconensis, in Spain, in 89 Trajan supported the emperor against...

 (98-117) in the campaign in Dacia

Dacia

In ancient geography, especially in Roman sources, Dacia was the land inhabited by the Dacians or Getae as they were known by the Greeks—the branch of the Thracians north of the Haemus range...

.

He wrote a work on Cosmetics in four books, which were very popular in Galen

Galen

Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus , better known as Galen of Pergamon , was a prominent Roman physician, surgeon and philosopher...

's time and which contained almost all that had been written on the same subject by Heraclides of Tarentum

Heraclides of Tarentum

Heraclides of Tarentum, , was a Greek physician of the Empiric school who wrote commentaries on the works of Hippocrates....

, Cleopatra, and others. The contents of each chapter of the four books have been preserved by Galen, by whom the work is frequently quoted. He wrote also a work on Simple Medicines of which the fourth book is quoted by Galen; he is also quoted by Aëtius

Aëtius Amidenus

Aëtius of Amida was a Byzantine physician and medical writer, particularly distinguished by the extent of his erudition. Historians are not agreed about his exact date...

 and Paul of Aegina

Paul of Aegina

Paul of Aegina or Paulus Aegineta was a 7th-century Byzantine Greek physician best known for writing the medical encyclopedia Medical Compendium in Seven Books...

, and may perhaps be the person to whom one of the letters of Apollonius of Tyana

Apollonius of Tyana

Apollonius of Tyana was a Greek Neopythagorean philosopher from the town of Tyana in the Roman province of Cappadocia in Asia Minor. Little is certainly known about him...

 is addressed.

Criton also has a historical work, Getica, about the history of Daco-Getae

Getae

The Getae was the name given by the Greeks to several Thracian tribes that occupied the regions south of the Lower Danube, in what is today northern Bulgaria, and north of the Lower Danube, in Romania...

. Getica was at the basis of Trajan's own work, Dacica

Dacica

Dacica is a Latin work by Roman Emperor Trajan, written in the spirit of Julius Caesar's commentaries like De Bello Gallico, and describing Trajan's campaigns in Dacia....

(or De bello dacico), about his Dacian Wars.

He is perhaps the author of a work on Cookery, mentioned by Athenaeus

Athenaeus

Athenaeus , of Naucratis in Egypt, Greek rhetorician and grammarian, flourished about the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd century AD...

.

None of his works seem to be extant, except a few fragments preserved by other authors.

As Trajan's medic, Criton created a mixture consumed daily by the emperor.

He is perhaps the person mentioned by Martial

Martial

Marcus Valerius Martialis , was a Latin poet from Hispania best known for his twelve books of Epigrams, published in Rome between AD 86 and 103, during the reigns of the emperors Domitian, Nerva and Trajan...

.

Titles of works

• Cosmetics, a medical treatise
• Simple Medicines
• Getica, a work on the history of the Getae
  Getae
  The Getae was the name given by the Greeks to several Thracian tribes that occupied the regions south of the Lower Danube, in what is today northern Bulgaria, and north of the Lower Danube, in Romania...