CHAPTER XXV

POST-CLASSICAL MEDICINE
Three representatives of post-classical medicine — Bibliographical note — Medical compendiums : Oribasius and Paul of Aegina — Aetius of Amida — How superstitious are Aetius and Alexander of Tralles? — Compound medicines — Aetius merely reproduces the superstition of Galen — Occult science mixed with some scepticism — Alexander of Tralles — Originality of his work — His medieval influence — His per- sonal experience — Extent of his superstition — Physica — Occult virtue of substances applied externally — Other things used as ligatures and amulets — Astrology and sculpture of rings — Incantations — Conjura- tion of an herb — Medieval version seems less superstitious than the original text — Marcellus: date and identity — "Marcellus Empiricus" — Superstitious character of his medicine — Preparation of goat's blood — A rabbit's foot — Magic transfer of disease — Pliny and Marcellus compared on green lizards as eye-cures — More lizardry — Use of stones and an herb — Right and left: number — Incantations and characters — The art of medicine survives the barbarian invasions.
Three repre- sentatives of post- classical medicine.
In this chapter as representatives of post-classical medicine and its influence upon medieval Latin medicine we shall consider three writers whose works date from the close of the fourth to the middle of the sixth century, Marcellus of Bordeaux or Marcellus Empiricus, Aetius of Amida in Mesopotamia, and Alexander of Tralles in Asia Minor.-^ They have just been mentioned in their chronological order,
* There appears to have been no complete edition of Aetius in Greek. The first eight of his six- teen books were printed at Venice in 1534, and the ninth at Leipzig in 1757, but for the entire sixteen books one must use the Latin translation of Cornarius, Basel, 1542, etc., which I have read in Stephanus, Medicae artis prin- cipes, 1567.
Recent editions of portions of Aetius are : kinov 'Koyos SuSeKaros TtpoiTOv vvv eKSoOeis viro Teupyiov A. KuxTTonoipov, pp. 112, 131, Paris, 1802.
Die Augenheilkunde des Aetius aus Amida, Griechisch und deutsch herausg. von J. Hirsch- berg, pp. xi, 204, Leipzig, 1899.
Aetii sermo sextidecimus et ultimiiS (Aeriov irtpi tuv ev fJ.iiTp(f. iradoiv etc.). Erstens aus HSS veroffentl. mit Abbildungen, etc.,