Editing Dioscorides (section)

==Life==
A native of [[Anazarbus]], [[Cilicia]], [[Asia Minor]], Dioscorides likely studied medicine nearby at the school in [[Tarsus, Mersin|Tarsus]], which had a pharmacological emphasis, and he dedicated his medical books to Laecanius Arius, a medical practitioner there.{{efn|The dedication, translated by Scarborough and Nutton,<ref>Scarborough and Nutton, 1982</ref> began "At your insistence I have assembled my material into five books, and I dedicate my compendium to you in fulfilment of a debt of gratitude for your sentiments towards me".<ref name=Stobart/>}}<ref name=Stobart>{{cite book |last=Stobart |first=Anne |title=Critical Approaches to the History of Western Herbal Medicine: From Classical Antiquity to the Early Modern Period |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7SseAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA193 |year=2014 |publisher=A&C Black |isbn=978-1-4411-8418-4 |page=193}}</ref><ref name=Wallace>{{cite book | title=Principles and methods of toxicology | editor-first=Andrew Wallace | editor-last=Hayes | page=13  | author1=Borzelleca, Joseph F. | author2=Lane, Richard W. | contribution=The Art, the Science, and the Seduction of Toxicology: an Evolutionary Development | edition=5th | year=2008 | publisher=Taylor & Francis}}</ref> Though he writes he lived a "soldier's life" or "soldier-like life", his pharmacopeia refers almost solely to plants found in the Greek-speaking eastern Mediterranean, making it likely that he served in campaigns, or travelled in a civilian capacity, less widely as supposed.<ref>Nutton, Vivian. Ancient medicine. Routledge, 2012. p. 178</ref><ref name="Stobart" /> The name Pedanius is Roman, suggesting that an aristocrat of that name sponsored him to become a Roman citizen.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Western Herbal Tradition: 2000 Years of Medicinal Plant Knowledge |author1=Tobyn, Graeme |author2=Denham, Alison |author3=Whitelegg, Midge |edition=illustrated |publisher=Singing Dragon |year=2016 |isbn=9780857012593 |page=4}}</ref>