Alexander of Tralles

[4] Alexander was born a Greek in Tralles in Asia Minor,[5] and he had the advantage of being brought up under his father Stephanus, who was himself a physician,[6] and also under another person, whose name he does not mention, but to whose son Cosmas he dedicates his chief work,[7] which he wrote out of gratitude at his request.

He was a man of an extensive practice, of a very long experience, and of great reputation, not only at Rome, but wherever he traveled in Spain, Gaul, and Italy,[8] whence he was called by way of eminence "Alexander the Physician".

German scholar Johann Albert Fabricius considered Alexander to have belonged to the Methodic school, but in the opinion of Freind this is not proved sufficiently by the existing text.

For example, his suggestion for treatment of ague: "Gather olive leaf before sunrise, write on it with common ink κα ροι α (ka roi a), and hang it round the neck.

The other work of Alexander that is still extant is a short treatise, Περὶ Ἑλμίνθων, De Lumbricis, which was first published in Greek and Latin by Hieronymus Mercurialis (Venica 1570, 4to).