Adamantius ( grc-gre, Αδαμάντιος) was an ancient physician, bearing the title of

iatrosophist Iatrosophist ( grc, ἰατροσοφιστής, la, iatrosophista) is an ancient title designating a professor of medicine. It comes from grc, ἰᾱτρός 'doctor' and grc, σοϕιστής 'learned person'."sophist, n." OED Online, Oxford Un ...

(; broadly, "professor of medicine"). Little is known of his personal history, except that he was

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

by birth, and that he was one of those who fled from

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...

at the time of the expulsion of the Jews from that city by the

Patriarch The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholic Churches are termed patriarchs (and in certai ...

Cyril of Alexandria in 415. He went to

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya ( Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis ( ...

, was persuaded to embrace

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

, apparently by Archbishop Atticus of Constantinople, and then returned to Alexandria. Adamantius is the author of a Greek treatise on

physiognomy Physiognomy (from the Greek , , meaning "nature", and , meaning "judge" or "interpreter") is the practice of assessing a person's character or personality from their outer appearance—especially the face. The term can also refer to the genera ...

() in two books. It is still extant, and borrows in a great measure (as Adamantius himself confesses) from Polemon's work on the same subject. It is dedicated to "Constantius", who is supposed by Fabricius to be the same Constantius who married

Placidia Placidia () was a daughter of Valentinian III, Roman emperor of the West from 425 to 455, and from 454/455 the wife of Olybrius, who became western Roman emperor in 472. She was one of the last imperial spouses in the Roman west, during the Fall ...

(i.e. Constantius III), the daughter of

Theodosius the Great Theodosius I ( grc-gre, Θεοδόσιος ; 11 January 347 – 17 January 395), also called Theodosius the Great, was Roman emperor from 379 to 395. During his reign, he succeeded in a crucial war against the Goths, as well as in two ...

, and who reigned for seven months in conjunction with the Emperor Honorius. It was first published in Greek in Paris in 1540. Several of his medical prescriptions are preserved by

Oribasius Oribasius or Oreibasius ( el, Ὀρειβάσιος; c. 320 – 403) was a Greek medical writer and the personal physician of the Roman emperor Julian. He studied at Alexandria under physician Zeno of Cyprus before joining Julian's retinue. He ...

and Aëtius. Another of Adamantius' works, (Lat. ''De Ventis''), is quoted by the

Scholiast Scholia (singular scholium or scholion, from grc, σχόλιον, "comment, interpretation") are grammatical, critical, or explanatory comments – original or copied from prior commentaries – which are inserted in the margin of t ...

Hesiod Hesiod (; grc-gre, Ἡσίοδος ''Hēsíodos'') was an ancient Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. He is generally regarded by western authors as 'the first written poet ...

, and an extract from it is given by

Aëtius Amidenus Aetius, Aëtius, or Aetios (Ἀέτιος) may refer to: People * Aetius (philosopher), 1st- or 2nd-century doxographer and Eclectic philosopher * Aëtius of Antioch, 4th-century Anomean theologian * Flavius Aetius, Western Roman commander in chi ...

. The text was published in 1864 by Valentin Rose in ''Anecdota Graeca.''

Notes

References

* {{Authority control 5th-century Byzantine writers Physiognomists 5th-century Byzantine physicians 5th-century Jews