Caelius Aurelianus of Sicca in Numidia was a Greco-Roman

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 ...

and writer on medical topics. He is best known for his translation from Greek to Latin of a work by

Soranus of Ephesus Soranus of Ephesus ( grc-gre, Σωρανός ὁ Ἑφέσιος; 1st/2nd century AD) was a Greek physician. He was born in Ephesus but practiced in Alexandria and subsequently in Rome, and was one of the chief representatives of the Methodic ...

, ''On Acute and Chronic Diseases''. He probably flourished in the 5th century, although some place him two or even three centuries earlier. In favour of the later date is the nature of his

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 ...

, which shows a strong tendency to the Romance, and the similarity of his language to that of

Cassius Felix Cassius Felix (), also Cassius Felix of Cirta, was a Roman African medical writer probably native of Constantina. He is known for having written in AD 447 a Latin treatise titled ''De Medicina''. The little we can say of the author comes from his ...

, also an African medical writer, who about 450 wrote a short treatise, chiefly based on

Galen Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus ( el, Κλαύδιος Γαληνός; September 129 – c. AD 216), often Anglicized as Galen () or Galen of Pergamon, was a Greek physician, surgeon and philosopher in the Roman Empire. Considered to be one ...

. We possess a translation by Aurelianus of two works of Soranus of Ephesus (2nd century), the chief representative of the

methodic school The Methodic school of medicine (''Methodics'', ''Methodists'', or ''Methodici'', el, Μεθοδικοί) was a school of medicine in ancient Greece and Rome. The Methodic school arose in reaction to both the Empiric school and the Dogmatic sch ...

of medicine, on chronic and acute maladies—''Tardae'' or ''Chronicae Passiones'', in five, and ''Celeres'' or ''Acutae Passiones'' in three books. The translation, which is especially valuable since the original has been lost, shows that Soranus possessed considerable practical skill in the diagnosis of both ordinary and exceptional diseases. It is also important in that it contains numerous references to the methods of earlier medical authorities. We also possess considerable fragments of his ''Medicinales Responsiones'', also adapted from Soranus, a general treatise on medicine in the form of questions and answers; it deals with rules of health (''salutaria praecepta'') and the pathology of internal diseases (ed.

Rose A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...

, ''Anecdota Graeca et Latina'', ii., 1870). Where it is possible to compare Aurelianus's translation with the original—as in a fragment of his ''Gynaecia'' with Soranus's '—it is found that it is literal, but abridged. There is apparently no manuscript of the treatises in existence. In his texts, Aurelianus writes about the 2nd century Greek physician

Apollonius Glaucus Apollonius Glaucus (Greek: Ἀπολλώνιος Γλαῦκος) was a physician and author, writer who must have lived during or before the 2nd century CE, as his work ''On Internal Diseases'' is quoted by Caelius Aurelianus. Nothing more is kno ...

, author of several works on internal diseases. Aurelianus quotes a passage on the subject of lumbrici.

Notes

References

*Aurelianus, Caelius, ''On Acute Diseases and On Chronic Diseases'', edited and translated by I.E. Drabkin, University of Chicago Press (1950). * * * *

External links

* {{Authority control Aurelianus 5th-century Roman physicians 5th-century Latin writers 5th-century translators People from El Kef