The Older Authorities

Andromachus the Elder

fl. AD 60

Physician to the emperor Nero. He added the flesh of vipers to the mithridate and set down the recipe in Greek verse; his compound, the theriac, was made in Galen’s form for sixteen centuries.

3 Entries in the Materia Medica

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Each passage in which the database cites Andromachus the Elder, entry by entry.

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  1. Mithridate, plate: Drug jar for mithridate, Annibale Fontana, Milan, 1580–90.
    MithridateThe antidote attributed by legend to Mithridates VI of Pontus, the forerunner of theriac.
  2. Theriac, plate: Drug jar for theriac, Italy, 18th century
    TheriacThe great compound antidote of antiquity, with about sixty ingredients in Galen’s formulat
  3. ViperThe flesh of the viper, Vipera species, dried into troches.

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