Agathinus was an eminent ancient Greek

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...

 physician

Physician

A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...

, the founder of a new medical sect, to which he gave the name of Episynthetici

Eclectic school

The Eclectic school of medicine was an ancient school of medicine in ancient Greece and Rome. They were so-called because they selected from each sect the opinions which seemed to them most probable. They seemed to have been a branch of the Methodic school. They were founded, it would seem by...

.

He was born at Sparta

Sparta

Sparta or Lacedaemon, was a prominent city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the banks of the River Eurotas in Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese. It emerged as a political entity around the 10th century BC, when the invading Dorians subjugated the local, non-Dorian population. From c...

 and must have lived in the 1st century AD, as he was the pupil of Athenaeus

Athenaeus of Cilicia

Athenaeus of Attalia , was a physician, and the founder of the Pneumatic school of medicine. He was born in Cilicia, at Attalia according to Galen, or at Tarsus according Caelius Aurelianus...

, and the tutor of Archigenes

Archigenes

Archigenes , an eminent ancient Greek physician, who lived in the 1st and 2nd centuries.He was the most celebrated of the sect of the Eclectici, and was a native of Apamea in Syria; he practised at Rome in the time of Trajan, 98-117, where he enjoyed a very high reputation for his professional skill...

. He is said to have been once seized with an attack of delirium, brought on by want of sleep, from which he was delivered by his pupil Archigenes, who ordered his head to be fomented with a great quantity of warm oil.

He is frequently quoted by Galen, who mentions him among the Pneumatici

Pneumatic school

The Pneumatic school of medicine was an ancient school of medicine in ancient Greece and Rome. They were founded in Rome by Athenaeus of Cilicia, in the 1st century AD....

. None of his writings are now extant. The precise opinions of his sect are not known, but they were probably nearly the same as those of the Eclectici

Eclectic school

The Eclectic school of medicine was an ancient school of medicine in ancient Greece and Rome. They were so-called because they selected from each sect the opinions which seemed to them most probable. They seemed to have been a branch of the Methodic school. They were founded, it would seem by...

.