CHAPTER SEVEN

CELSUS AS HISTORIAN?1

Heinrich von Staden

The earliest surviving attempt at a comprehensive 'history' of medi­ cine arguably is Aulus Cornelius Celsus' remarkable prooemium2 to the eight books of his De medicina, 3 probably written in the early decades of the first century of our era. Its historical sweep reaches from 'primitive' cultures to his own time and, for all its culture­ specific sensibility, it introduces universalistic perspectives. Moreover, throughout his work Celsus displays historical awareness, and in further, more specialised prooemia, also in books 5 and 8, he pre­ sents supplementary histories of individual medical disciplines. 4 Modern scholars interested in Celsus' 'historiographic' and 'doxo­ graphic' activity have been drawn to two issues, in particular. One is

1 I am deeply grateful to Philip van der Eijk for his generous help and patience. My understanding of Celsus has benefitted not only from many helpful contribu­ tions published over the last hundred years, but also from discussions over the last decade with Ivan Garofalo, Daniela Manetti, Philippe Mudry, Amneris Roselli, Guy Sabbah, and Fabio Stok. 2 In particular, prooem. 1-1 l. (Prooem. 12-75 serve as Celsus' preface to the four books on regimen, i.e., Books 1-4; see below, Part 2). Any discussion of Celsus' opening prooemium has to acknowledge its indebtedness to Philippe Mudry, La Preface du De medicina de Celse. Texte, traduction et commentaire, Bibliotheca Helvetica Romana (Institut Suisse de ), XIX, 1982. I say 'arguably' because, as Philip van der Eijk points out above, chapter 1 pp. 3-4, there is ample historical reflection as early as the Hippocratic Corpus (e.g., Hp. De vetere medicina 2-12, which is concerned with the origin and 'archaeology' of medical discoveries). But, regardless of its degree of originality, Celsus' comprehensive , divided into approximately eight historical periods, most of them associated with well attested historical figures, represents 'medical history'-as opposed to medical 'doxography', such as the 'Aristotelian' doxography discussed above, chapter 4, by Daniela Manetti-of quite a different order, as will become evident below. 3 In all probability Books 1-8 of Celsus' De medicina constituted Books 6-13 of his encyclopaedic Artes. 4 See below, Parts 2-4, on Celsus' prefaces to regimen, , and . On the structure and nature of the prefaces see L. Zurli, "Le praefationes nei Libri VIII De medicina di A. Cornelio Celso", in: C. Santini, N. Scivoletto (eds.), Prefazione, prologhi, proemi di opere tecnico-scientifiche latine, vol. I, Rome, 1990, pp. 295-337. 252 HEINRICH VONSTADEN the perhaps intractable problem of Celsus' source(s). The other is the question of his own allegiance with respect to the famous Hellenistic 'debate' between the Empiricists and the so-called 'ratio­ nalists', and, to a lesser extent, the Methodists (a debate first reported, at least in extant Greek and Latin literature, in Celsus' opening prooemium 13-75). The present contribution, by contrast, will focus on Celsus' influential presentations of the history of medicine, which, while displaying some affinity with other works of Greek historiography, in many respects have no extant precursors and for this reason, too, deserve closer scrutiny. Furthermore, the role of arguably the most famous and most analysed 'doxographic' part of Celsus' work-the 'debate' between Empiricist and 'ratio­ nalist' doxai--within his overall 'historiographic' strategy can only be understood against the background of a larger Celsian 'story' that begins well before the 'debate' and continues even longer after it. My observations will be presented in five parts, of which the first is the most extensive:

1. From myth to Methodism: a Roman history of Greek medi­ cine. 2. From 'historiography' to 'doxography': Celsus' preface to regimen. 3. Necessity and interdependence: Celsus as historian of phar­ macology. 4. rediuiuus, Alexandria, and Rome: Celsus as historian of surgery. 5. History, doxography and system.

1. From myth to Methodism: A Roman history of Greek medicine

1.1 Celsus the universal historian

Although Celsus' De medicina is largely a representation in Latin of Greek scientific medicine of the classical and Hellenistic periods, he starts his initial 'history' of medicine with larger cultural and chronological perspectives, as did a number of Hellenistic 'universal' historians, such as Diodorus of Sicily. In every space and time of human history, Celsus claims, human beings everywhere have had means of treating wounds and diseases. Medicine therefore is a universal feature of human culture: