Aretaeus ( grc-gre, Ἀρεταῖος) is one of the most celebrated of the ancient Greek
physician
A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...
s. Little is known of his life. He presumably was a native or at least a citizen of
Cappadocia
Cappadocia or Capadocia (; tr, Kapadokya), is a historical region in Central Anatolia, Turkey. It largely is in the provinces Nevşehir, Kayseri, Aksaray, Kırşehir, Sivas and Niğde.
According to Herodotus, in the time of the Ionian Revo ...
, a Roman province in
Asia Minor
Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...
(modern day
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
), and most likely lived in the second half of the second century AD. He is generally styled "the Cappadocian" ().
Diagnostic method
Aretaeus wrote in
Ionic Greek
Ionic Greek ( grc, Ἑλληνικὴ Ἰωνική, Hellēnikē Iōnikē) was a subdialect of the Attic–Ionic or Eastern dialect group of Ancient Greek.
History
The Ionic dialect appears to have originally spread from the Greek mainland ac ...
. His eight treatises on
disease
A disease is a particular abnormal condition that negatively affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism, and that is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical conditions that a ...
s, which are still extant, are considered to be among the most important Greco-Roman medical works ever written. His valuable work displays great accuracy in the detail of symptoms, and in seizing the diagnostic character of diseases. In his practice he followed for the most part the method of
Hippocrates
Hippocrates of Kos (; grc-gre, Ἱπποκράτης ὁ Κῷος, Hippokrátēs ho Kôios; ), also known as Hippocrates II, was a Greek physician of the classical period who is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of ...
, but he paid less attention to what have been styled "the natural actions" of the system; and, contrary to the practice of the ''Father of Medicine'', he did not hesitate to attempt to counteract them, when they appeared to him to be injurious.
Aretaeus offered clinical descriptions of a number of diseases among which he gave classic accounts of
asthma
Asthma is a long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and easily triggered bronchospasms. Symptoms include episodes of wheezing, cou ...
,
epilepsy
Epilepsy is a group of non-communicable neurological disorders characterized by recurrent epileptic seizures. Epileptic seizures can vary from brief and nearly undetectable periods to long periods of vigorous shaking due to abnormal electrical ...
,
pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...
,
tetanus
Tetanus, also known as lockjaw, is a bacterial infection caused by ''Clostridium tetani'', and is characterized by muscle spasms. In the most common type, the spasms begin in the jaw and then progress to the rest of the body. Each spasm usually ...
,
uterine cancer
Uterine cancer, also known as womb cancer, includes two types of cancer that develop from the tissues of the uterus. Endometrial cancer forms from the lining of the uterus, and uterine sarcoma forms from the muscles or support tissue of the uteru ...
,
liver cancer
Liver cancer (also known as hepatic cancer, primary hepatic cancer, or primary hepatic malignancy) is cancer that starts in the liver. Liver cancer can be primary (starts in liver) or secondary (meaning cancer which has spread from elsewhere to th ...
, and different kinds of insanity. He differentiated nervous diseases and mental disorders and described
hysteria
Hysteria is a term used colloquially to mean ungovernable emotional excess and can refer to a temporary state of mind or emotion. In the nineteenth century, hysteria was considered a diagnosable physical illness in women. It is assumed that ...
,
headache
Headache is the symptom of pain in the face, head, or neck. It can occur as a migraine, tension-type headache, or cluster headache. There is an increased risk of depression in those with severe headaches.
Headaches can occur as a result ...
s,
mania
Mania, also known as manic syndrome, is a mental and behavioral disorder defined as a state of abnormally elevated arousal, affect, and energy level, or "a state of heightened overall activation with enhanced affective expression together wit ...
and
melancholia
Melancholia or melancholy (from el, µέλαινα χολή ',Burton, Bk. I, p. 147 meaning black bile) is a concept found throughout ancient, medieval and premodern medicine in Europe that describes a condition characterized by markedly dep ...
. Some of his thinking about neurological disorders anticipated 19th and 20th century notions. He wrote the first known description of
coeliac disease
Coeliac disease (British English) or celiac disease (American English) is a long-term autoimmune disorder, primarily affecting the small intestine, where individuals develop intolerance to gluten, present in foods such as wheat, rye and barle ...
, naming it disease of the abdomen, ''koiliakos''. He also wrote the first known description of
diabetes
Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ap ...
.
The account which Aretaeus gives of his treatment of various diseases indicates a simple and sagacious system, and one of more energy than that of the professed
Methodici. Thus he freely administered active
purgative
Laxatives, purgatives, or aperients are substances that loosen stools and increase bowel movements. They are used to treat and prevent constipation.
Laxatives vary as to how they work and the side effects they may have. Certain stimulant, lubri ...
s; he did not object to
narcotics
The term narcotic (, from ancient Greek ναρκῶ ''narkō'', "to make numb") originally referred medically to any psychoactive compound with numbing or paralyzing properties. In the United States, it has since become associated with opiates ...
; he was much less averse to
bleeding
Bleeding, hemorrhage, haemorrhage or blood loss, is blood escaping from the circulatory system from damaged blood vessels. Bleeding can occur internally, or externally either through a natural opening such as the mouth, nose, ear, urethra, vag ...
; and upon the whole his ''Materia Medica'' was both ample and efficient.
It may be asserted generally that there are few of the ancient physicians, since the time of Hippocrates, who appear to have been less biased by attachment to any peculiar set of opinions, and whose account of the phenomena and treatment of disease has better stood the test of subsequent experience. Aretaeus is placed by some writers among the
Pneumatici because he maintained the doctrines which are peculiar to this sect; other systematic writers, however, think that he is better entitled to be placed with the
Eclectics
Eclecticism is a conceptual approach that does not hold rigidly to a single paradigm or set of assumptions, but instead draws upon multiple theories, styles, or ideas to gain complementary insights into a subject, or applies different theories in ...
.
Works
Aretaeus' work consists of eight books, two ''De causis et signis acutorum morborum'', two ''De causis et signis diuturnorum morborum'', two ''De curatione acutorum morborum'', and two ''De curatione diuturnorum morborum''. They are in a tolerably complete state of preservation, though a few chapters are lost.
The work was first published in a
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
translation by Junius Paulus Crassus (Giunio Paolo Grassi), Venice 1552, together with
Rufus of Ephesus
Rufus of Ephesus ( el, Ῥοῦφος ὁ Ἐφέσιος, fl. late 1st and early 2nd centuries AD) was a Greek physician and author who wrote treatises on dietetics, pathology, anatomy, gynaecology, and patient care. He was an admirer of Hi ...
. The first Greek edition is that by Jacobus Goupylus, Paris, 1554, which is more complete than the Latin version of Crassus. In 1723 a major edition in folio was published at the
Clarendon Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
at Oxford, edited by
John Wigan, containing an improved text, a new Latin version, learned dissertations and notes, and a copious index by
Michel Maittaire
Michel Maittaire (also Michael) (1668 – 7 September 1747) was a French-born classical scholar and bibliographer in England, and a tutor to Lord Philip Stanhope. He edited an edition of Quintus Curtius Rufus, later owned by Thomas Jefferson. His ...
. In 1731,
Boerhaave
Herman Boerhaave (, 31 December 1668 – 23 September 1738Underwood, E. Ashworth. "Boerhaave After Three Hundred Years." ''The British Medical Journal'' 4, no. 5634 (1968): 820–25. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20395297.) was a Dutch Botany, b ...
brought out a new edition, of which the text and Latin version had been printed before the appearance of Wigan's; this edition contains annotations by
Pierre Petit and Daniel Wilhelm Triller. The edition by C. G. Kühn, Leipzig 1828, included Wigan's text, Latin version, dissertations, etc., together with Petit's commentary, Triller's emendations, and Maittaire's index. An edition by
F. Z. Ermerins was published in Utrecht in 1847.
A more recent standard edition is by Karl Hude (1860–1936) in the ''Corpus medicorum graecorum'' (2nd ed., Berlin, Akademie-Verlag, 1958
online. The four books ''De causis et signis'' have now been issued in an annotated bilingual edition in Greek and French (Arétée de Cappadoce, ''Des causes et des signes des maladies aiguës et chroniques'', trans. R.T.H. Laennec, ed. and comm. Mirko D. Grmek, pref. by
Danielle Gourevitch
Danielle Gourevitch (21 January 194113 June 2021) was a French medical historian and classicist.
Early life and education
Born Danielle Leherpeux in Pluméliau (Morbihan), Gourevitch attended the École normale supérieure de jeunes filles in ...
, Geneva, 2000).
Secondary literature
The medical opinions of Aretaeus have been discussed by such scholars as
Johann Albert Fabricius
Johann Albert Fabricius (11 November 1668 – 30 April 1736) was a German classical scholar and bibliographer.
Biography
Fabricius was born at Leipzig, son of Werner Fabricius, director of music in the church of St. Paul at Leipzig, who was the ...
,
Albrecht von Haller
Albrecht von Haller (also known as Albertus de Haller; 16 October 170812 December 1777) was a Swiss anatomist, physiologist, naturalist, encyclopedist, bibliographer and poet. A pupil of Herman Boerhaave, he is often referred to as "the fa ...
, and
Kurt Sprengel
Kurt Polycarp Joachim Sprengel (3 August 1766 – 15 March 1833) was a German botanist and physician who published an influential multivolume history of medicine, ''Versuch einer pragmatischen Geschichte der Arzneikunde'' (1792–99 in four vol ...
. Aretaeus has been treated more recently in a couple of short monographs:
*
Karl Deichgräber, ''Aretaeus von Kappadozien als medizinischer Schriftsteller'', Berlin, 1971.
* Fridolf Kudlien, ''Untersuchungen zu Aretaios von Kappadokien'', Mainz, 1964.
For Aretaeus' influence on
Giambattista Morgagni
Giovanni Battista Morgagni (25 February 1682 – 6 December 1771) was an Italian anatomist, generally regarded as the father of modern anatomical pathology, who taught thousands of medical students from many countries during his 56 years as Prof ...
, the father of anatomical pathology, see:
* Giorgio Weber, ''Areteo di Cappadocia: interpretazioni e aspetti della formazione anatomo-patologica del Morgagni'', Florence, 1996
References
Sources
*
Further reading
* New York: Blom, 1970.
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External links
Aretaeus' complete works in Greek and English(edition of Francis Adams, 1856) at the Digital Hippocrates project
The extant works of Aretaeus, the Cappadocian, edited and translated by Francis Adams, London, printed for the Sydenham Society, 1856Worksa
Open Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aretaeus of Cappadocia
1st-century Greek physicians
Ionic Greek writers
Cappadocia (Roman province)
People from Cappadocia