320 Late antiquity
Yet if all parts were loosened by a state of looseness, these (medicaments) should
similarly be applied to all parts, even to those that are consumed by an invisible
decay. For the difference seems to be one of concomitant symptoms, but the kind
of the diseases remains the same.
( 26 ) Conicienda sunt eius praeterea accidentia, quae Graeci symptomata uocant,
cum generali congrua curatione. (Chron. 3. 5. 71 )
Moreover, one should consider the concomitant characteristics of the diseases,
which the Greeks call symptoms, in connection with the treatment that is appro-
priate to the kind of disease.^78
( 27 ) Sed haec utraque Soranus excludit; nam primo dicto respondens ait aliud
esse signum, aliud accidens. nam signum neque recedit et semper significato co-
niunctum est, accidens autem, quod Graeci symptoma uocant, nunc aduenit,
nunc recedit, ex quibus esse intelligimus singula, quae febricitantium accidentia
dixerunt, ut corporis difficilem motum, grauedinem, tensionem praecordiorum.
(Acut. 2. 33. 176 )
But Soranus rejects both of these, for against the first statement he argues that
a sign is something different from a concomitant characteristic. For a sign does
not disappear and is always connected with what is signified, but a concomitant
characteristic, which the Greeks call a symptom, now appears, now disappears,
from which points we understand that there are individual phenomena, which
they say are the concomitant characteristics of people who have fever, such as
difficulty with moving, heaviness, and a distention of the praecordium.
( 28 ) declinante passione omnia supradicta minuentur, quae Graeci symptomata
uocauerunt, nos accidentia passionis. (Acut. 3. 18. 177 )
When the disease declines, all the above mentioned phenomena will decrease,
which the Greeks call symptoms, but which we call concomitant characteristics.
( 29 ) ac si passionibus fuerint appendicia, quae saepe generandorum animalium
fuerunt causae, erunt congrua iisdem passionibus adhibenda. (Chron. 4. 8. 118 )
But if they are consequences of diseases, which have often been the causes of the
generation of these animals, measures have to be taken that are appropriate to the
same diseases.
Thus as far as definitions as such are concerned, it seems that when Caelius –
apparently bluntly – says that he, or Soranus, refuses to give definitions, he
means that he and Soranus object to the uncritical, automatic procedure
of trying to catch the essence of a disease in a definition. This can perhaps
be understood against the background of a certain keenness on definitions
(^78) Cf.Acut. 2. 6. 30 : ‘One should also attend the other concomitant signs of the disease, which the Greeks
callsymptomata’(attendenda etiam cetera passionum accidentia, quae symptomata Graeci uocauerunt).