Although only a small proportion of these texts survive today in the original Greek, others are accessible through Arabic translations. See the new study by Overwien (2018). There are also surviving commentaries in Latin, most probably produced by scholars based in sixth-century Ravenna; see Palmieri (2001). Second, this period also saw the production of medical handbooks in Greek and Latin.
The Greek Tradition
Oribasios, Aetios of Amida, and Paul of Aegina 📚
In Owsei Temkin’s own words, ‘Oribasios marks the terminus a quo we can safely speak of Galenism in medicine’, emphasising the dependence of the late antique medical system on Galen’s theories and practices (Temkin (1973: 64)). Active in the second half of the fourth century, Oribasios is the author of four works, in which a prominent role is indeed given to Galen’s corpus almost a century and a half after the latter’s death, attesting to his growing importance. The efforts of Oribasios must have been crucial in establishing Galen’s works as the main sources for the composition of medical handbooks in Late Antiquity, although, as we will see below, the surviving material often reveals a remarkable pluralism with regard to the selection and use of the available medical sources. Oribasios was a personal friend and physician of the Emperor Julian (r. 361–3), with whom he seems to have become acquainted during the latter’s exile in Asia Minor; he accompanied Julian on the Persian expedition (363) and looked after him until his death (See de Lucia (2006: 21–9)). He wrote a synopsis of Galen’s works that does not survive today but, thanks to the Byzantine scholar and patriarch Photios (810–93), its proem is preserved in the latter’s lengthy Bibliotheca. On Photios’ discussion of Oribasios’ works, see Marganne (2010: 516–18). See also Stathakopoulos (Chapter 7) in this volume, who discusses the Bibliotheca in the framework of Galen’s reception in non-medical Byzantine sources.
The second author is Aetios, a native of Amida (Turkey), who lived in the first half of the sixth century. There is some debate over whether he was ever at the court of Constantinople,19 but there is no evidence of this in any surviving sources, including Aetios’ own text. Similarly, the appellation komēs tou Opsikiou found in some late manuscripts is dubious (Cf. Hunger (1978: II.294)). His medical treatise, usually called Libri medicinales or Tetrabiblos, consists of sixteen books covering the following topics: pharmacology, dietetics, surgery, prognostics, general pathology, fever and urine lore, ophthalmology, cosmetics, dentistry, toxicology, gynaecology, and obstetrics. Out of the sixteen books, only the first eight have been published in a modern critical edition. Some parts of the remaining books remain unpublished or can only be accessed in questionable editions (Garzya (1984)). On the whole, Aetios was noticeably less dependent on Galen than was Oribasios. Among the most frequently cited Galenic texts are: On the Capacities of Simple Drugs, On the Composition of Drugs According to Kind, On the Composition of Drugs According to Places, On the Preservation of Health, On Affected Parts, and Therapeutics to Glaucon, with occasional mentions of other treatises such as On the Different Kinds of Fevers, On Crises, and On Treatment by Bloodletting.
