# List of ancient physicians

The following is a list of ancient physicians who were known to have practised, contributed, or theorised about medicine in some form between the 30th century BCE and 4th century CE.

## 30th century to 1st century BCE

| Name | Century | Ethnicity | Known for |
| Imhotep | 27th century BCE | Egyptian | One of the first recorded physicians |
| Bogar | 3rd century BCE | Indian | The Pharmacognosy is the best known of his treatises |
| Tirumular | 2nd century BCE | Indian | |
| Aegimus | 5th century BCE | Greek | first person who wrote a treatise on the pulse |
| Korakkar | 2nd century BCE | Indian | His works include Korakkar Malai Vagatam (Korakkar's Mountain Medicines) |
| Patanjali | 2nd century BCE | Indian | Founder of Yoga School |
| Amenhotep | 13th century BCE | Egyptian | chief physician of the early 19th Dynasty |
| Androcydes | 4th century BCE | Greek | |
| Antipater | 1st century BCE | Greek | author of a work titled On the Soul |
| Kashyapa | 8th century BCE | Indian | wrote Kashyap Samhita |
| Apollonius Glaucus | 3rd century BCE | Greek | On Internal Diseases |
| Apollonios of Kition | 1st century BCE | Greek Cypriot | most important work is On Joints |
| Agnivesha | 8th century BCE | Indian | wrote Agnivesha Samhita considered foundational text of the Agnivesha school of early Ayurveda |
| Bharadwaja | 12th century BCE | Indian | He stated that embryo is caused from union of man's sperm and menstrual blood of woman |
| Atreya | 6th century BCE | Indian | Instructor of the compiler of the Bhela Samhita |
| Aristotle | 4th century BCE | Greek | |
| Asclepiades of Bithynia | 2nd–1st century BCE | Greek | built a new theory of disease |
| Bian Que | 4th century BCE | Chinese | earliest known Chinese physician |
| Bolus of Mendes | 3rd century BCE | Greek | |
| Cato the Elder | 2nd century BCE | Roman | |
| Charaka | 6th–2nd century BCE | Indian | one of the principal contributors to Ayurveda |
| Ctesias | 5th century BCE | Greek | |
| Demetrius of Apamea | 2nd century BCE | Greek | studied sexual organs |
| Dexippus of Cos | 4th century BCE | Greek | pupil of Hippocrates |
| Dieuches | 4th century BCE | Greek | Dogmatic school of medicine |
| Diocles of Carystus | 4th century BCE | Greek | practical medicine, especially diet and nutrition |
| Erasistratus | 3rd century BCE | Greek | founded a school of anatomy in Alexandria |
| Heraclides of Tarentum | 2nd century BCE | Greek | physician of the Empiric school |
| Herophilus | 3rd century BCE | Greek | deemed to be the first anatomist |
| Hicesius | 1st century BCE | Greek | head of a medical school established at Smyrna |
| Hippocrates | 5th century BCE | Greek | "Father of Medicine", wrote the Hippocratic Corpus |
| Irynachet | 22nd century BCE | Egyptian | senior physician of the great house |
| Jivaka Komarabhacca | 5th century BCE | Indian | personal physician of King Bimbisara and Gautama Buddha |
| Madhava-kara | 8th century BCE | Indian | listed diseases along with their causes, symptoms, and complications |
| Meges of Sidon | 1st century BCE | Greek/Roman | surgeon |
| Mnesitheus | 4th century BCE | Greek | classification of diseases |
| Sextius Niger | 1st century BCE | Roman | pharmacology |
| Penthu | 16th century BCE | Egyptian | Chief Physician to Akhenaten |
| Peseshet | 25th century BCE | Egyptian | one of the earliest known female physicians |
| Harita | 8th century BCE | Indian | pupil of Atreya and composed samhita |
| Jatukarna | 8th century BCE | Indian | pupil of Atreya and composed "Jatukarna Samhita" |
| Philinus of Cos | 3rd century BCE | Greek | reputed founder of the Empiric school |
| Philistion of Locri | 4th century BCE | Greek | physician and writer of medicine |
| Philoxenus (physician) | 3rd century BCE | Greco-Egyptian | wrote several volumes on surgery |
| Plistonicus | 4th–3rd century BCE | Greek | wrote a work on anatomy |
| Posidonius | 2nd–1st century BCE | Greek | polymath |
| Praxagoras of Cos | 4th century BCE | Greek | theory of circulation |
| Qar | 23rd century BCE | Egyptian | Chief Physician during the Sixth dynasty |
| Rabâ-ša-Marduk | 13th century BCE | Kassite | |
| Serapion of Alexandria | 3rd century BCE | Greek | member of the Empiric school of medicine |
| Shepseskaf-ankh | 25th century BCE | Egyptian | Chief Physician during the Fifth dynasty |
| Sushruta | 7th century BCE | Indian | author of the treatise The Compendium of Suśruta |
| Themison of Laodicea | 1st century BCE | Greek | founder of the Methodic school of medicine |
| Theophrastus | 4th–3rd century BCE | Greek | |

## 1st century to 4th century CE

| Name | Century | Ethnicity | Known for |
| Abascantus | 2nd century CE | Greek | invented antidote against serpent bites |
| Fabiola | 4th century CE | Roman | First hospital in Latin Christendom was founded by Fabiola at Rome. |
| Ephrem the Syrian | 4th century CE | Roman | Opened a hospital at Edessa They spread out and specialized nosocomia for the sick, brephotrophia for foundlings, orphanotrophia for orphans, ptochia for the poor, xenodochia for poor or infirm pilgrims, and gerontochia for the old |
| Basil of Caesarea | 4th century CE | Roman | Founded at Caesarea in Cappadocia an institution (hospital) called Basileias, with several buildings for patients, nurses, physicians, workshops, and schools. |
| Aemilia Hilaria | 4th century CE | Roman | female physician. Wrote books on gynecology and obstetrics. |
| Aeschrion of Pergamon | 2nd century CE | Greek | pharmaceutist |
| Agathinus | 1st century CE | Greek | founder of the Eclectic school of medicine |
| Albucius | 1st century CE | Roman | wealthy physician, with annual income of 250,000 sesterces |
| Alcon (classical history) | 1st century CE | Greek | surgeon |
| Andromachus | 1st century CE | Greek | |
| Anonymus Londinensis | 1st century CE | Greek | author of the physiological work On Medicine |
| Antipater | 2nd century CE | Greek | gave an account of the morbid symptoms that precede death |
| Antiphanes of Delos | 2nd century CE | Greek | "the sole cause of diseases in man was the too great variety of his food" |
| Antonius Castor | 1st century CE | Roman | herbal remedies |
| Antyllus | 2nd century CE | Greek | surgeon, treatment of aneurysms became standard until the 19th century |
| Apollonius Claudius | 2nd century CE | Greek | |
| Apollonius Cyprius | 1st century CE | Greek | |
| Apollonius Organicus | 2nd century CE | Greek | |
| Apollonius Pergamenus | 3rd century CE | Greek | |
| Apollonius Pitaneus | 1st century CE | Greek | |
| Apollonius Senior | 1st century CE | Greek | |
| Apollonius Tarensis | 1st century CE | Greek | |
| Apollonius Ther | 1st century CE | Greek | |
| Dridhabala | 2nd century CE | India | edited the Charaka Samhita |
| Archigenes | 1st–2nd century CE | Greek | very high reputation for his professional skill |
| Arcyon | 1st century CE | Greek | surgeon |
| Aretaeus | 1st century CE | Greek | general treatise on diseases |
| Asclepiades Pharmacion | 1st–2nd century CE | Greek | skill and knowledge of pharmacy |
| Aspasia the Physician | 4th century CE | Greek | Female gynecologist |
| Athenaeus of Attalia | 1st century CE | Greek | founder of the Pneumatic school of medicine |
| Cassius Felix | 3rd century CE | Roman African | medical writer |
| Aulus Cornelius Celsus | 1st century CE | Roman | De Medicina |
| Charmis | 1st–2nd century CE | Greek | Physician active in Rome |
| Saints Cosmas and Damian | 3rd century CE | Arab | persecuted by Diocletian |
| Crinas | 1st–2nd century CE | Greek | Physician active in Rome |
| Criton of Heraclea | 1st–2nd century CE | Greek | Chief physician of emperor Trajan |
| Damocrates | 1st century CE | Greek | wrote pharmaceutical works in Greek iambic verse |
| Demosthenes Philalethes | 1st century CE | Greek | author of the Ophthalmicus, the most influential work of ophthalmology in antiquity |
| Saint Diomedes | 3rd century CE | Greek | arrested by Diocletian |
| Pedanius Dioscorides | 1st century CE | Greek | De Materia Medica |
| Dong Feng | 3rd century CE | Chinese | |
| Erotianus | 1st century CE | Greek | Collection of Hippocratic Words |
| Eudemus (physician) | 1st–2nd century CE | Greek | two persons, the first the poisoner of Drusus Julius Caesar, the second an acquaintance of Galen |
| Saint Fabiola | 4th century CE | Roman | nurse |
| Gaius Stertinius Xenophon | 1st century CE | Greek | personal physician of emperor Claudius |
| Galen | 2nd–3rd century CE | Greek | developer of anatomy, physiology, pathology, pharmacology, and neurology |
| Ge Hong | 4th century CE | Chinese | originator of First Aid in TCM |
| Heliodorus | 1st century CE | Greek | wrote on medical technique |
| Herodotus (physician) | 1st–2nd century CE | Greek | Two doctors, the first a Pneumaticist, the second an Empiricist |
| Hua Tuo | 2nd century CE | Chinese | abilities in acupuncture, moxibustion, herbal medicine and medical Daoyin exercises |
| Huangfu Mi | 3rd century CE | Chinese | compiled the Canon of Acupuncture and Moxibustion |
| Ji Ben | 3rd century CE | Chinese | physician who started a failed rebellion |
| Leonidas (physician) | 2nd–3rd century CE | Greek | surgical writer, provided the first detailed description of a mastectomy |
| Leoparda | 4th century CE | Greek | female gynecologist |
| Marcellus of Side | 2nd century CE | Greek | wrote a long medical poem |
| Quintus Gargilius Martialis | 3rd century CE | Roman | writer on horticulture, botany and medicine |
| Menemachus | 2nd century CE | Greek | Methodic school of medicine |
| Menodotus of Nicomedia | 2nd century CE | Greek | Empiricist |
| Metrodora | 4th century CE | Greek | female gynecologist, author of On the Diseases and Cures of Women. |
| Oribasius | 4th century CE | Greek | medical writer and person physician of Julian the Apostate |
| Paccius Antiochus | 1st century CE | Roman | wealthy commercial physician |
| Philagrius of Epirus | 3rd century CE | Greek | medical writers |
| Philonides (physician) | 1st century CE | Greek | author of De Medicina |
| Philumenus | 3rd century CE | Greek | |
| Aelius Promotus | 2nd century CE | Greek | author of Medicinalium Formularum Collectio |
| Rufus of Ephesus | 1st–2nd century CE | Greek | wrote treatises on dietetics, pathology, anatomy, and patient care |
| Serenus Sammonicus | 3rd century CE | Roman | author of a didactic medical poem Liber Medicinalis |
| Scribonius Largus | 1st century CE | Roman | court physician to the Roman emperor Claudius |
| Sextius Niger | 1st century CE | Roman | author of the pharmacologist work On material |
| Sextus Empiricus | 2nd century CE | Roman | |
| Sextus Placitus | 4th century CE | Roman | author of Libri medicinae Sexti Placiti Papyriensis ex animalibus pecoribus et bestiis vel avibus Concordantiae |
| Soranus of Ephesus | 2nd century CE | Greek | author of treatise on gynecology and On Acute and Chronic Diseases |
| Theodorus Priscianus | 4th century CE | Roman | author of Medical Matters in Four Books |
| Vagbhata | 4th century CE | Indian | He is considered to be "The Trinity" of Ayurvedic knowledge |
| Thessalus of Tralles | 1st century CE | Roman | Methodic school of medicine, court physician of Emperor Nero |
| Xenocrates of Aphrodisias | 1st century CE | Greek | pharmaceutical writer, including On Useful Things from Living Beings |
| Zhang Zhongjing | 2nd-3rd century CE | Chinese | made great contributions to the development of Traditional Chinese Medicine |
| Zopyrus (physician) | 1st century CE | Greek | antidote inventor |

## Unknown Date

| Name | Century | Ethnicity | Known for |
| Olymnius of Alexandria | Unknown | Greek | author of the work on Critical Days. |