Medici Docti in Verse Inscriptions*

Medici Docti in Verse Inscriptions* Julia Lougovaya In the opening of his On My Own Books, Galen contrasts a man of letters (τις ἀνὴρ τῶν φιλολόγων) with many students of medicine and philosophy of his day: the man of letters, upon reading just a couple lines of a book, could discern on the basis of the language that its ascription to Galen was false (ὡς οὐκ ἔστιν ἡ λέξις αὕτη Γαληνοῦ καὶ ψευδῶς ἐπιγέγραπται τουτὶ τὸ βιβλίον), while the students of medicine and philosophy could not even read properly: ὁ μὲν οὖν τοῦτ’ εἰπὼν ἐπεπαίδευτο τὴν πρώτην παιδείαν, ἣν οἱ παρ’ Ἕλλησι παῖδες ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἐπαιδεύοντο παρά τε γραμματικοῖς καὶ ῥήτορσιν· οἱ πολλοὶ δὲ τῶν νῦν ἰατρικὴν ἢ φιλοσοφίαν μετιόντων οὐδ’ ἀναγνῶναι καλῶς δυνάμενοι φοιτῶσι παρὰ τοὺς διδάξοντας τά τε μέγιστα καὶ κάλλιστα τῶν ἐν ἀνθρώποις, τὰ θεωρήματα, ἃ φιλοσοφία τε καὶ ἰατρικὴ διδάσκουσιν. Now, the man who said that (sc. that the book was not by Galen) had been schooled in fundamental early education, which children among the Greeks always used to be educated in by the grammarians and rhetoricians. On the other hand, many of those who these days pursue a career in medicine or philosophy are not even able to read properly, and yet they come constantly to those who are aiming to teach the greatest and most beautiful fields of human speculation, the knowledge that philosophy and medicine teach. (Libr.propr. XIX 9,1-12 K.) Although this slackness in basic education, Galen continues, existed already when he was a youth, it was not that extreme then.1 Elsewhere he laments “the * This article results from my research into material aspects of texts, which is conducted within the University of Heidelberg’s Sonderforschungsbereich 933, “Materiale Textkulturen. Materialität und Präsenz des Geschriebenen in non-typographischen Gesellschaften,” funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. 1 ἦρκτο μὲν οὖν ἡ τοιαύτη ῥᾳδιουργία πρὸ πολλῶν ἐτῶν, ἡνίκ’ ἔτι μειράκιον ἦν ἐγώ, οὐ μὴν εἰς τοσοῦτόν γ’ εἰς ὅσον νῦν ηὔξηται, προεληλύθει τὸ κατ’ ἐκεῖνον τὸν χρόνον, “this kind of slack attitude existed already many years ago when I was still a youth, but it had not advanced back then to the extreme state that it has reached now” (Libr.propr. XIX 9,12-15 K.). Open Access. © 2019 Julia Lougovaya, published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110536409-012 140 Archiv für Papyrusforschung, Beiheft 40, 2019 bad upbringing current in our times’,2 and in many of his works he ruminates on the importance of various arts, in particular of knowing all parts of philosophy – the logical, the physical, and the ethical – both in acquisition of medical knowledge and in practicing the art of medicine.3 General humanities education was not only a necessary requirement for training in philosophy, but also of immediate practical benefit to a physician in the ancient world: literary skills and expertise in grammar served well the need for exegesis of medical texts, and training in rhetoric could help one defend the need for a certain type of treatment. Even versification skills could be useful because, according to Galen, rendering medical recipes in verse not only helped one remember them, but also ensured their accuracy by preventing distortion through copying: εἴρηταί μοι πολλάκις ὡς οὐ μόνον εἰς μνήμην αἱ ἔμμετροι γραφαὶ χρησιμώτεροι τῶν πεζῇ ἐγραμμένων εἰσὶν, ἀλλὰ καὶ εἰς τὴν τῆς συμμετρίας τῶν μιγνυμένων ἀκρίβειαν. I have already mentioned many times that writings in verse are more useful than those composed in prose not only for memorizing, but also for the precision of the relation of substances to be mixed together. (Comp.med.gen. XIII 820,15-17 K.)4 The very existence of a genre of pharmacological poetry suggests that literary aptness, including metrical competence, was not unexpected from a medical writer,5 while Galen’s own interest in poetry is evident from his frequent citations of ancient authors, foremost Homer, but also archaic lyric and classical drama.6 Galen himself received a superb comprehensive education, ensured by his architect father Nikon, in the city of Pergamum, one of the main cultural centers of the Greco-Roman world. Although his learned upbringing may have 2 μοχθηρὰν τροφήν, οἵαν οἱ νῦν ἄνθρωποι τρέφονται (Quod opt.med. I 56,13-57,1 K.). 3 Cf., in particular, such works as On My Own Books (Libr.propr.), The Best Doctor is Also a Philosopher (Quod opt.med.), and An Exhortation to the Study of Arts (Protrept.); secondary literature is abundant, but among recent works on the scope of Galen’s cultural interests, one may single out Nutton, “Library”, and papers collected in Adamson/Hansberger/Wilberding, Themes. 4 Elsewhere Galen discusses the fact that the copying of medical recipes is susceptible to distortion, both willing (when the copyist does not actually want to pass on the recipe and changes it) and unwilling and owed to the ease of confusing numerals in the amounts. Consequently, he commends Menecrates, whose practice he himself follows, for writing numerals out and praises Andromachus and Damocrates for composing their pharmacological works in verse (Antid. XIV 31,10-32,10 K.; Comp.med.loc. XII 349,12-350,10 K.). 5 Among recent works on Greek and Latin pharmacological poetry and its perception, cf. Vogt, Lehrdichtung and Hautala, Addresses. 6 For Galen’s choice of literary authors, cf. Nutton, Library, esp. pp. 30-4. J. Lougovaya, Medici Docti in Verse Inscriptions 141 been a product of a unique combination of talent, ambition, and opportunities that were unattainable for most ancient doctors,7 concern for an education in the humanities and for the cultural standing of a physician finds reflection in various testimonia outside Galen’s writings, too. In his study of the medical curriculum in the Greek part of the Roman empire, Gabriele Marasco surveys testimonia for the life and career of several physicians and concludes that the evidence not only demonstrates the comprehensive nature of medical education particularly in Roman Alexandria, but also reflects the cultural integration of ‘science’ and ‘humanities’ in the medical domain in antiquity.8 Literary tradition, however, is inevitably highly selective and partial. One notes, by way of example, that while Galen cites seven authors of pharmacological poems, none of about four hundred medical recipes surviving on papyri from Roman and Byzantine Egypt is composed in meter.9 On the other hand, documentary texts, which furnish evidence for a wider and more variable pool of people than the literary tradition tends to concern itself with, often provide only scanty information on the people involved in their composition or use. Yet, they help expand, so to speak, the coverage. So it is to the papyrological evidence that Ann Hanson turns to investigate the question of medical literacy of ordinary practitioners in Greco-Roman Egypt and their relation to the medical writers and scholarly elite attested by literary tradition.10 Drawing upon documents such as private letters, didactic texts, and collections of recipes, she concludes that ‘the doctors of Egypt were learning and practicing their craft in a milieu closely attuned to medical developments throughout the entire Mediterranean.’11 But is it possible to address the subject of broad literary education among doctors, the question Marasco explores, while extending their pool, like Hanson does, beyond those physicians attested by the literary tradition? I believe that it is. Verse inscriptions constitute a further category of evidence associated with people of the medical profession. Inscriptions attest a much wider cross-section 7 Hanson, Literacy, 200-1. 8 Marasco, Curriculum. The list of the physicians surveyed includes Caesarius, the brother of Gregory of Nazianzus, who excelled in philosophy; Olympius, who was a student of Libanius and whose expertise extended to grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy; Magnus of Nisbis, known for his persuasiveness; and Ionicus of Sardis, who distinguished himself in his understanding of anatomy and the composition of drugs, while also embracing rhetoric and writing poetry. It was not until the middle of the nineteenth century, Marasco reminds, that the dichotomy between the sciences and humanities affected the study of medicine. 9 Vogt, Lehrdichtung, 53-4; for the number of recipes preserved on papyri, cf. Hanson, Literacy. 10 Just to illustrate the scale of documentary coverage, there were 154 individuals identified as doctors in Greek papyri from Egypt in a list of attested professions published in 1987, see Harrauer, Steuerwesen, 89-100. Cf. Hanson, “Literacy”, p. 189-191, for discussion of their varying levels of literacy. 11 Hanson, Literacy, 201. 142 Archiv für Papyrusforschung, Beiheft 40, 2019 of physicians than the literary tradition does, and the fortuity of preservation ensures that the pool is random,12 while preference for verse may reflect literary and cultural aspirations on the part of the people involved. Indeed, verse inscriptions result from the deliberate choice of endowing an occasional and functional text, such as the identification of a grave or a dedication, with beauty, grandeur, and emotion. At the same time, they comport with cultural expectations and literary sensibilities. Furthermore, composition, and probably consumption, of verses requires a kind of literary competence, which, unlike talent or inspiration, allows for some formal categories of assessment. In what follows I survey Greek verse inscriptions

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