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Doxographical Hints in Oribasius' Coliectiones Medicae CHAPTER FOURTEEN DOXOGRAPHICAL HINTS IN ORIBASIUS' COLIECTIONES MEDICAE Roberto De Lucia Oribasius was the Emperor Julian's (361-363 CE) friend and court physician, and had become close to him long before his accession to the throne; a large part both of his medical career and of his writings has a close connection with this circumstance. Our main source on Oribasius' works, Photius, Bibliotheca ("Library") 216-219, 173 b 34-176 b 23 (3.131-139 Henry), lists four writings, whose authorship is undisputed: ( 1) A compendium of Galenic writings (lost), whose proem is quoted by Photius himself; Oribasius wrote it at the time of the Gaul campaign following Julian's orders; (2) Collectiones medicae ("Medical Collections"), in 70 books (only partially preserved), a compendium of the writings of the best physi­ cians on the whole subject of medicine. This work also was written, after the Galenic compendium, at Julian's request and is intended to provide the reader with a profound and comprehensive medical formation; (3) Synopsis ad Eustathium ("Compendium for Eustathius"), in 9 books, an abridged version of the previous work written by Oribasius for his son, with the aim of providing remedies that can be prepared by means of things within reach during a journey or in an emer­ gency; it is intended for those who have already acquired a profound medical knowledge through the study of the Collectiones; (4) Ad Eunapium ("Books for Eunapius"), in 4 books, very similar to the previous work (although more concise) both in its content and its purpose; in this case, the writing is directed to educated laymen who want to acquire a basic medical knowledge for their own specific needs. Oribasius lived through the brief Julianic 'pagan renaissance', a mixture of philosophy and mysticism involving every field of life and 474 ROBERTO DE LUCIA culture, including medicine. InJulian's opinion, medicine was a gift given by gods to men and offered evidence of the superiority of Hellenism over Christian culture: "Asclepius heals our bodies, and the Muses with the aid of Asclepius and Apollo and Hermes ( ... ) train our souls ( ... ). Consider therefore whether we are superior to you (i.e. the Christians) in every single one of these things, I mean in the arts and in wisdom and intelligence, or not; and this is true whether you consider the useful arts or the imitative arts ( ... ) or ( ... ) the art of healing derived from Asclepius ( ... ). At any rate, when I have been sick, Asclepius has often cured me by prescribing remedies; and of this Zeus is witness. "1 This probably explains Julian's interest in the Greek medical tradition which emerges from Oribasius' writings; in the Emperor's plan, the Galenic compendium and the Collectiones were not only intended as useful medical treatises, but were also to be a monument to Hellenic-i.e. pagan-medicine, a proud claim to the greatness of pagan thought. But Oribasius was neither an ideologist nor a philo­ sopher stricto sensu; he was a physician. Oribasius' attitude towards the "platonizing" Galen, shown in the proem of the Collectiones, is probably related to the renewed spring of Neoplatonist thought in the Julianic age; perhaps we could detect a general influence exer­ cised by the Platonic doctrine of the knowledge/ reminiscence (av&µvT)crv;) on the Oribasian ava/;~i-l]mc; ("re-search"; see below) of the ancient, i.e. pre-existent and already fixed, medical knowledge.2 Finally, Oribasius implicitly followed the principles of every l;~i-rimc; as defined in Aristotle's Analytica posteriora ("Posterior Analytics") 2.1, 89 b 24 f. ("Four are the elements into which our inquiry falls: the thing itself, the cause, if the thing does really exist, what it is"). But apart from these general cultural debts, there is no particular philosophical interest detectable in Oribasius' works. Consequently, it might seem strange enough to find a chapter on Oribasius in a book devoted to medical doxography. Oribasius' writings have always been considered as compilations whose sole value lies in the fragments taken from lost medical texts which they 1 Adversus Galilaeos ("Against the Galilaeans") 235 b-c, translated by W. Cave Wright ( The Works of the Emperor Julian, with an English translation by W.C.W., III, London - New York, 1923, p. 387 ff.). I owe this reference to Prof. Ugo Criscuolo's kindness, who confirmed my views about Julian's interest in medicine. 2 But probably this is simply a further development of the theses underlying Galen's De placitis Hippocratis et Platonis; see the discussion by Vegetti elsewhere in this volume, ch. 9. .
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