PHILIP, a native of Acarnania, physician to Alexander the Great. When that monarch had been suddenly taken ill, after bathing in the Cydnus, Philip undertook to remove the complaint, when the rest of the physicians believed that all medical assistance would be ineffectual. But as he was preparing his medicine, Alexander received a letter from Parmenio, in which he was advised to beware of his physician Philip, as he had conspired against his life. The monarch was alarmed; and when Philip presented him the medicine, he gave him Parmenio's letter to peruse, and began to drink the potion. The serenity and composure of Philip's countenance, as he read the letter, removed every suspicion from Alexander's breast, and he pursued the directions of his physician, and in a few days recovered.
There were, besides, a vast number of persons of this name in antiquity, and many of them were very eminent.