Aelius Promotus

Aelius Promotus (Gr. Αίλιος Προμωτος) was an ancient physician of Alexandria,[1] of whose personal history no particulars are known, and whose date is uncertain. He is supposed by Villoison to have lived after the time of Pompey the Great,[2] that is, in the 1st century BC. By others he is considered to be much more ancient; yet other scholars place him as late as the second half of the 1st century AD. He is most probably the same person who is quoted by Galen simply by the name of Aelius.[3] He wrote several Greek medical works, which are still to be found in manuscript in different libraries in Europe. The treatise On venomous beasts and poisonous drugs, attributed to Aelius, was last published in 1995.[4] His main work titled Δυναμερόν[5] (Latin Medicinalium Formularum Collectio), was first published in its complete extension in 2002 by Daria Crismani.[6] Two other of his works are quoted or mentioned by Hieronymus Mercurialis.[7] And also by Schneider in his prefaces to Nicander's Theriaca,[8] and Alexipharmaca.[9]

References

  1. ^ Greenhill, William Alexander (1867), "Aelius Promotus", in Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, 1, Boston, pp. 29, http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0038.html 
  2. ^ Jean-Baptiste Gaspard d'Ansse de Villoison, Anecd. Graec. vol. ii. p. 179. note 1
  3. ^ Galen, De Compos. Medicam. secund. Locos. iv. 7, vol. xii. p. 730
  4. ^ S. Ihm, Der Traktat περὶ τῶν ἰοβόλων θηρίων καὶ δηλητηρίων φαρμάκων des sog. Aelius Promotus. Serta Graeca 4. Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, 1995. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=IL8rAAAAYAAJ
  5. ^ Δυναμερόν is a word used by the later Greek writers, and is explained by Du Cange (Gloss. Med. et Infim. Graecit.) to mean vis, virtus. It is however frequently used in the sense given to it in the text.
  6. ^ Elio Promoto alessandrino, Manuale della salute, a cura di Daria Crismani (Hellenica 9), Alessandria 2002
  7. ^ Hieronymus Mercurialis, Variae Lectiones, iii. 4; De Venenis et Morbis Venenosis, i. 16, ii. 2
  8. ^ p. xi
  9. ^ p. xix

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1870).