Pantaleon of Pydna

Pantaleon (Greek: Πανταλέων) was a Macedonian hetairos from Pydna, who was appointed by Alexander the Great as phrourarch of Memphis in 331 BC.

References

Pantaleon

Pantaleon (Greek: Πανταλέων) was a Greek king who reigned some time between 190–180 BCE in Bactria and India. He was a younger contemporary or successor of the Greco-Bactrian king Demetrius, and is sometimes believed to have been his brother and/or subking. He was the first Greek king to strike Indian coins, peculiar irregular bronzes which suggests he had his base in Arachosia and Gandhara and wanted support from the native population.

The limited size of his coinage indicates a short reign. Known evidence suggests that he was replaced by his (probable) brother or son Agathocles, by whom he was commemorated on a "pedigree" coin. Some of his coins (as well as those of Agathocles and Euthydemus II) have another surprising characteristic: they are made of copper-nickel alloy, a technology that would not be developed in the West until the 18th century, but was known by the Chinese at the time. This suggests that exchanges of the metallic alloy or technicians happened between China and the region of Bactria.

Pantaleon (disambiguation)

Pantaleon was an early 2nd century BC Greco-Bactrian king

Pantaleon may also refer to:

See also

Saint Pantaleon

Saint Pantaleon (Greek: Παντελεήμων [Panteleímon], "all-compassionate"), counted in the West among the late-medieval Fourteen Holy Helpers and in the East as one of the Holy Unmercenary Healers, was a martyr of Nicomedia in Bithynia during the Diocletian persecution of 305 AD.

Though there is evidence to suggest that a martyr named Pantaleon existed, some consider the stories of his life and death to be purely legendary.

Legends

According to the martyrologies, Pantaleon was the son of a rich pagan, Eustorgius of Nicomedia, and had been instructed in Christianity by his Christian mother, Saint Eubula; however, after her death he fell away from the Christian church, while he studied medicine with a renowned physician Euphrosinos; under the patronage of Euphrosinos he became physician to the Emperor Maximian or Galerius.

He was won back to Christianity by Saint Hermolaus (characterized as a bishop of the church at Nicomedia in the later literature), who convinced him that Christ was the better physician, signalling the significance of the exemplum of Pantaleon that faith is to be trusted over medical advice, marking the direction European medicine was to take until the 16th century.