  pedanius dioscorides (; c. 40 â 90 ad) was a physician, pharmacologist and botanist, the author of de materia medicaâa 5-volume encyclopedia about herbal medicine and related medicinal substances (a pharmacopeia), that was widely read for more than 1,500 years. dioscorides wrote de materia medica in greek, his native language. he was employed as a medical doctor in the roman army. ==life== a native of anazarbus, cilicia, asia minor, dioscorides practised medicine in rome during the reign of the emperor nero. he was a surgeon with the roman army, which gave him the opportunity to travel extensively, at the same time seeking medicinal substances (plants and minerals) from all over the roman empire. ==de materia medica==   between ad 50 and 70  dioscorides wrote a five-volume book in his native greek, , known more widely by its latin title de materia medica ("regarding medical materials") which became the precursor to all modern pharmacopeias. forbes, 2013  in contrast to many classical authors, dioscorides' works were not "rediscovered" in the renaissance, because his book had never left circulation; indeed, with regard to western materia medica through the early modern period, dioscorides' text eclipsed the hippocratic corpus.de vos (2010) "european materia medica in historical texts: long
1st-century_Greek_people 1st-century_writers 40_births 90_deaths Ancient_Greek_physicians Ancient_Greek_writers Ancient_Roman_physicians Herbalists Pharmacologists Pre-Linnaean_botanists