Dracon I

(Δράκων), eighteenth in descent from Aesculapius, who lived in the fifth and fourth centuries B. C. He was the son of Hippocrates II. (the most celebrated physician of that name), the brother of Thessalus, and the father of Hippocrates commonly called IV. (Jo. Tzetzes, Chil. vii. Hist. 155, in Fabric. Bibl. Graeca, vol. xii. p. 682, ed. vet.; Suid. s. v. Ἱπποκράτης; Galen, De Difficult. Respir. 2.8, vol. vii. p. 854; Comment. in Hippocr. " De Humor." 1.1, vol. xvi. p. 5; Comment. in Hipipocr. " Praedict. I." 2.52, vol. xvi. p. 625; Comment. in Hippocr. " De Nat. Hom." 2.1, vol. xv. p. 111; Thessali, Orat. ad Aram, and Sorani Vita Hippocr. in Hippocr. Opera, vol. iii. pp. 842, 855.) Galen tells us that some of the writings of Hippocrates were attributed to his son Dracon.

DRACON II. Was, according to Suidas (s. v. Δράκων), the son of Thessalus, and the father of Hippocrates (probably Hippocrates IV.). If this be correct, he was the nineteenth of the family of the Asclepiadae, the brother of Gorgias and Hippocrates III., and lived probably in the fourth century B. C.

DRACON III. is said by Suidas (s. v. Δράκων) to have been the son of Hippocrates (probably Hippocrates IV.), and to have been one of the physicians to Roxana, the wife of Alexander the Great, in the fourth century B. C.

There is, however, certainly some confusion in Suidas, and perhaps the origin of the mistakes may be his making Dracon I. and Dracon II. two distinct persons, by calling Dracon II. the grandson, instead of the son, of Hippocrates II.

[W.A.G]