Aëtius of Amida

For other people named Aetius, see Aetius.

Aëtius of Amida (Greek: Ἀέτιος Ἀμιδηνός, Latin: Aëtius Amidenus) (fl. mid-5th century to mid-6th century) 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 Patriarch Cyril of Alexandria, who died 444,[3] but also to Petrus archiater, who could be identified with the physician of Theodoric the Great,[4] whom he defines a contemporary. He is himself quoted by Alexander of Tralles,[5] who lived probably in the middle of the 6th century. He was probably a Christian, which may account perhaps for his being confounded with Aëtius of Antioch, a famous Arian who lived in the time of the Emperor Julian.

Contents

Life

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 travelled and visited the copper mines of Soli, Cyprus, then Jericho and the Dead Sea.

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 practising medicine.

Works

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]

References

  1. ^ Greenhill, William Alexander (1870). "Aetius". In Smith, William. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. 1. Boston, MA. pp. 53. http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0062.html. 
  2. ^ Dunglison, Robley (1872). History of Medicine from the Earliest Ages to the Commencement of the 19th Century. Philadelphia: Lindsay and Blakiston. p. 182. http://books.google.com/?id=yDwLsLawimAC&pg=PA183&dq=aetius+medical#PPA182,M1. 
  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. p. 130. http://books.google.com/?id=WH7SZO2qpk4C&pg=PA130&dq=aetius+medical#PPA130,M1. 
  11. ^ Lawrence, J.J. (1905). "Medical brief". The Medical Brief: A Monthly Journal of Scientific Medicine and Surgery (Boston: Harvard University) 33: 166. http://books.google.com/?id=5RYCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA166&dq=aetius+medical. Retrieved 2007-11-04. 
  12. ^ Kudlien, Franz (1970). "Aetius of Amida". Dictionary of Scientific Biography. 1. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 68–69. ISBN 0-684-10114-9. 

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

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