RE 2.2 (1896) 1633–1634, M. Wellmann; Watson (1966) 8–10, 15–16, 60–61; Fabricius (1972)
192 – 198, 246–253; BNP 2 (2003) 99 (#9), V. Nutton.
Alain Touwaide
Askle ̄piade ̄s Titiensis (ca 100 BCE?)
Cited after H, D, P, and before “De ̄me ̄trios,” for identify-
ing apoplexy with paralysis (S in C A, Acute 3.55 [CML 6.1.1,
p. 324]). The text may originally have read Apollo ̄nios Kitiensis (Citiensis in Latin), emended to
Titiensis by a copyist (referring to an obscure Bithunian town), who further confused
Apollo ̄nios with Askle ̄piade ̄s (both common medical names). Earlier editions of Caelius
Aurelianus (Sichardus, Rovillius, Amman) proffer ASCLEPIADES TITIENSIS; Wellmann
followed by Bendz corrected Titiensis to Citiensis, and Drabkin restored Apollo ̄nios Citien-
sis. Furthermore, Caelius Aurelianus may be citing authors chronologically (the first three
are ca 400, ca 300, and ca 200 BCE respectively). D may be A or some
other medical De ̄me ̄trios (e.g., “K”). Most likely, our author is A
K. (Cf. A, S A.)
RE 2.2 (1896) 1632 (#37), M. Wellmann.
GLIM
Askle ̄piade ̄s of Bithunia (in Rome, ca 120 – 90 BCE)
P 26.12 relates the story of Askle ̄piade ̄s turning to medicine from rhetoric since he was
not making a good living in a very crowded profession, but our polymath garbles the
chronology, setting the rhetorician-turned-physician in the time of Pompeius Magnus.
Rawson demonstrates that Askle ̄piade ̄s was dead by 91 BCE (C, De or. 1.62), but she
advances flaccid arguments against Pliny’s switch of professions, fairly common in an age
long before legally sanctioned medicine of any particular outlook. Pliny is ambivalent about
Askle ̄piade ̄s: he is brilliant (sagacis ingenii), but reduced medicine to a discovery of causes and
diagnostics into guesswork (medicinam ad causas reuocando coniecturae fecit); as a gifted speaker, he
persuaded patients that diseases were cured by simple means, but used the lies ordinary
among magicians (26.18: adiuuere eum magicae uanitates). C, 4.26.4, says Askle ̄piade ̄s
advocated giving cold rainwater mixed with wine (L 34.30 calls him
the “wine giver”), and his practice was marked by huge success and many prominent
patients, who valued his advice on dietetics, moderation in personal habits, mild exercise,
and careful employment of drugs – and then only rarely. Many of his students became
prominent physicians in their own right, and his pseudo-mechanistic medical philosophy fit
well into the general popularity of E in the late Republic, suggested by the famous
Library at Herculaneum, from which have emerged unknown works of P.
“Askle ̄piadean” physicians attended the emperors from A through Nero, and
A M used the “cold water treatment” to save Augustus in 23 BCE.
Debated are origins of his medical theories: Askle ̄piade ̄s taught the body is formed from
“fragile corpuscles” (anarmoi ongkoi), but, as Vallance (1990: 7–43) warns, certainly not the
“corpuscles” as understood in modern hematology. Ongkos in medico-philosophical context
could be a “lump,” and the ongkoi presumably passed through channels (poroi) throughout
the living body. If the ongkoi were blocked or the motion became too easy, disease occurred.
The mechanical nature of Askle ̄piade ̄s’ theories suggests Epicurus, the Platonist H-
H P, the Peripatetic S L, or possibly
ASKLE ̄PIADE ̄S TITIENSIS