Scribonius Largus (c. 1-c. 50) was the

court physician A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to Adjudication, adjudicate legal disputes between Party (law), parties and carry out the administration of justice in Civil law (common law), civil, C ...

to the Roman emperor

Claudius Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (; 1 August 10 BC – 13 October AD 54) was the fourth Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Nero Claudius Drusus, Drusu ...

. About 47 AD, at the request of

Gaius Julius Callistus Gaius Julius Callistus (flourished 1st century) was a Greek imperial freedman during the reigns of Roman Emperors Caligula and Claudius. Callistus was originally a freedman of Caligula, and was given great authority during his reign, which he u ...

, the emperor's freedman, he drew up a list of 271 prescriptions (''Compositiones''), most of them his own, although he acknowledged his indebtedness to his tutors, to friends, and to the writings of eminent physicians. Certain traditional remedies are also included. The work has no pretensions to style, and contains many colloquialisms. The greater part of it was transferred without acknowledgment to the work of

Marcellus Empiricus Marcellus Empiricus, also known as Marcellus Burdigalensis (“Marcellus of Bordeaux”), was a Latin medical writer from Gaul at the turn of the 4th and 5th centuries. His only extant work is the ''De medicamentis'', a compendium of pharmacologica ...

(c. 410), ''De Medicamentis Empiricis, Physicis, et Rationabilibus'', which is of great value for the correction of the text of Largus. See the edition of the ''Compositiones'' by S. Sconocchia (

Teubner The Bibliotheca Teubneriana, or ''Bibliotheca Scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana'', also known as Teubner editions of Greek and Latin texts, comprise one of the most thorough modern collection published of ancient (and some medieval) ...

1983), which replaced the well-outdated editionOnline but not complete.
/ref> of G. Helmreich (Teubner 1887).

Works

* ''De compositione medicamentorum liber''. Cratandrus, Basileae 152
Digital edition
by the University and State Library Düsseldorf *

Kai Brodersen Kai Brodersen (born 6 June 1958) is a contemporary ancient historian and classicist on the faculty of the University of Erfurt. He has edited, and translated, both ancient works and modern classical studies. His research focuses on "Applied Scie ...

: ''Scribonius Largus, Der gute Arzt / Compositiones''. Latin and German. Marix, Wiesbaden 2016. *Scribonius Largus and Joelle Jouanna Bouchet (ed.) ''Compositions médicales'' (''Collection des universités de France. Série latine''; 412). Paris : Les Belles lettres, 2016, cop. 2016. .

References

*James Grout
''Scribonius Largus'', part of the Encyclopædia Romana
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scribonius Largus Ancient Roman writers Silver Age Latin writers 1st-century Roman physicians 1st-century writers Scribonii AD 1 births 50 deaths