After a couple years’ work, Maria Βörno and I are finishing up a paper about the criteria Galen uses to decide when a work should or should not be attributed to Hippocrates. Galen’s work on this, On the Genuine and Spurious Writings of Hippocrates (Περὶ τῶν γνησίων τε καὶ νόθων Ἱπποκράτους συγγραμμάτων), is lost, but Maria is preparing a critical edition of Galen’s commentary on the seventh book of the Aphorisms, which is a great source for examples of how Galen attacks earlier Hippocratic interpreters’ attributions.

Maria found this one, where Galen invents something like a conspiracy theory explaining why the seventh book is full of spurious material (we give Kühn’s text below):

“Still, I think the people who interpolated these aphorisms composed them using these words for the following reason: to make the passage confusing, like an enigma, and need a lot of research, at which point they can position themselves as interpreters of what was said and gain the respect of the youth. Just from looking at this aphorism, it should be obvious to you that all of these unclear passages provide the sophists a pretext for garrulity.”

ἀλλ᾽ οἱ τούτους τοὺς ἀφορισμοὺς παρενθέντες δοκοῦσί μοι χάριν αὐτοῦ τούτοις συνθεῖναι, τοῦ συγκεχύσθαι τε τὸν λόγον, ὥσπερ αἴνιγμα, καὶ δεῖσθαι ζητήσεως πολλῆς, ἐν ᾗ καθιστάντες ἑαυτοὺς ἐξηγητὰς τῶν λεγομένων εὐδοκιμοῦσι παρὰ τοῖς μειρακίοις. ὅτι δὲ οἱ λόγοι πάντες οἱ ἀσαφεῖς ἀφορμὰς πολυλογίας παρέχουσι τοῖς σοφισταῖς δῆλον ἔσται σοι κατ᾽ αὐτὸν τοῦτον τὸν ἀφορισμόν.

Galen, Commentary on Hippocrates’ Aphorisms VII 69 (XVIIIA 184–185 K.)