Aëtius Amidenus

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For other people named Aetius, see Aetius.

Aëtius Amidenus or Aëtius of Amida (Gr. Αέτιος Αμιδηνός) was a Byzantine physician and medical writer,[1] particularly distinguished by the extent of his erudition.[2] Historians are not agreed about his exact date. He is placed by some writers as early as the 4th century; but it is plain from his own work that he did not write till the very end of the 5th or the beginning of the 6th, as he refers not only to Saint Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria, who died 444 AD,[3] but also to Petrus Archiater, who was physician to Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths,[4] and there­fore must have lived still later. He is himself quoted by Alexander Trallianus,[5] who lived probably in the middle of the 6th century.

He was a native of Amida, a city of Mesopotamia,[6] and studied at Alexandria, which was the most famous medical school of the age. He was probably a Christian, which may account perhaps for his being con­founded with another person of the same name, a famous Arian of Antioch, who lived in the time of the Emperor Julian.

In some manuscripts he has the title of komēs opsikiou (κόμης οψικίου), Latin comes obsequii, which means the chief officer in attendance on the em­peror.[7] This title, according to Photius,[6] he attained at Constantinople, where he was practicing medicine. Aetius seems to be the first Greek medical writer among the Christians who gives any speci­men of the spells and charms so much in vogue with the Egyptians, such as that of Saint Blaise in removing a bone which sticks in the throat,[8] and another in re­lation to a fistula.[9]

The division of his work Sixteen Books on Medicine (Βιβλία Ιατρικά Εκκαίδεκα) into four tetrabibli was not made by himself, but (as Fabricius observes) was the invention of some modern translator, as his way of quoting his own work is according to the numerical series of the books. Although his work does not contain much original matter, and is heavily indebted to Galen and Oribasius,[10] it is nevertheless one of the most valuable medical remains of antiquity, as being a very judicious compilation from the writ­ings of many authors, many from the Alexandrian Library, whose works have been long since lost.[11]

In the manuscript for book 8.13, the word άκμή (acme) is written as άκνή, the origin of the modern word acne.[12]



[edit] References

  1. ^ Greenhill, William Alexander (1870), “Aetius”, in Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. 1, Boston, MA, pp. 53 
  2. ^ Dunglison, Robley (1872). History of Medicine from the Earliest Ages to the Commencement of the 19th Century. Philadelphia: Lindsay and Blakiston, 182. 
  3. ^ tetrab. iii. serm. i. 24, p. 464
  4. ^ tetrab. ii. serm. iii. 110, p. 357
  5. ^ Alexander of Tralles, xii. 8, p. 346
  6. ^ a b Photius, cod. 221
  7. ^ see Du Cange, Gloss. Med. et Inf. Latin.
  8. ^ tetrab. ii. serm. iv. 50, p. 404
  9. ^ tetrab. iv. serm. m. 14, p. 762
  10. ^ Withington, Edward Theodore (1894). Medical History from the Earliest Times: A Popular History of the Healing Art. Scientific Press, 130. 
  11. ^ Lawrence, J.J. (1905). "Citation is missing a . Either specify one, or click here and a bot will complete the citation details for you. [1]". The Medical Brief: A Monthly Journal of Scientific Medicine and Surgery 33: 166. Boston: Harvard University. 
  12. ^ Kudlien, Franz (1970). "Aetius of Amida". Dictionary of Scientific Biography 1. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 68-69. ISBN 0-684-10114-9. 
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This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1870).