This text was read at the conference that Professor Jacques Jouanna, Paris-Sorbonne, held in Rome, at Sapienza University, on March 30th, 2017. The text extensively analyzes the subject of controversy in the Hippocratic writings, starting with the distinction between internal and external polemics. The difference between defensive polemics and offensive controversy is then analyzed, as well as the polemics due to the more or less close proximity of the physicians confronting each other.
