Page 157 - Sarpedon’dan Keykubad’a Bir Zamanlar Antalya

The Physician Heracleitos of
Rhodiapolis

“He planted his homeland; ode master,
lover of the undead,
Physician Heraclitus.
Praised Him Rhodes, the famous city of Alexander,
And the beautiful crowned people of Athens.
Sixty books to his hometown,
gifts to the wise physicians,
Leaving canes for the elderly,
Such a man,
eighty-seven years
There was a love in the hearts of the people.”

In order for such a poem to be written after a person’s death,
that person must do very useful works for the people of the
geography he lives in. However, the person whose name this
poem is written on has lived almost a large part of his eighty-
seven-year life to be useful to his country of Lycia and its city of
Rhodiapolis. If living is touching the lives of others, Heraclitus of
Kumluca lived a very good life in this context and made people
live as well.
Heraclitus was both a physician and a philosopher. He lived
in Rhodiapolis, that is, in Kumluca, in the 2nd century AD 1800
years ago. Our compatriot from Antalya went to Alexandria,
Rhodes and Athens, where he received training in medicine and
philosophy. So much so that Heraclitus left 60 written books on
medicine and philosophy in the libraries of these countries.
In addition to being a very hardworking student, Heraclitus
also practiced medicine in the places he went during his educa-
tion. So much so that he spent most of the money he earned not
for himself, but to be useful to his country Lycia and its city Rho-
diapolis when he returned (Kızgut 2011; Çevik 2015; İplikçioğlu 2018).

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