Caelius Aurelianus of Sicca in

Numidia Numidia was the ancient kingdom of the Numidians in northwest Africa, initially comprising the territory that now makes up Algeria, but later expanding across what is today known as Tunisia and Libya. The polity was originally divided between ...

was a

Greco-Roman The Greco-Roman world , also Greco-Roman civilization, Greco-Roman culture or Greco-Latin culture (spelled Græco-Roman or Graeco-Roman in British English), as understood by modern scholars and writers, includes the geographical regions and co ...

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

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 (; 1st/2nd century AD) was a Ancient Greek medicine, 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 school of medicine. Se ...

, ''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 languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

, which shows a strong tendency to the Romance, and the similarity of his language to that of Cassius Felix, also an African medical writer, who about 450 wrote a short treatise, chiefly based on

Galen Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus (; September 129 – AD), often Anglicization, anglicized as Galen () or Galen of Pergamon, was a Ancient Rome, Roman and Greeks, Greek physician, surgeon, and Philosophy, philosopher. Considered to be one o ...

. 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 (''Methodics'', ''Methodists'', or ''Methodici'', ) was a branch of medical thought in ancient Greece and Rome. It arose in reaction to both the Empiric school and the Dogmatic school (sometimes referred to as the Rationalist ...

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 plant, perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred Rose species, species and Garden roses, tens of thousands of cultivar ...

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

earthworms An earthworm is a soil-dwelling terrestrial animal, terrestrial invertebrate that belongs to the phylum Annelida. The term is the common name for the largest members of the class (biology), class (or subclass (biology), subclass, depending on ...

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 writers in Latin 5th-century translators People from El Kef