P.Harris 46). According to Celsus, he also cured a case of intoxication (pr.69); an antidote by
him is described by G CMLoc 4.8 (12.738 K.) and Scrib. L. 176; a ginger-based drug
by C A Chron. 4.99 (CML 6.1.2, p. 830). As for his methodology, he
tended possibly towards earlier Empiricism, purged from Rationalist accretions: Gale ̄n
Subf. emp. 4 ascribes to a “Pyrrhonean” Cassius a whole book on the “transition to the
similar” (the third part of the Empiricist “tripod”), in which he upheld the thesis “that the
Empiricist does not make use of this kind of transition.” The same Cassius is mentioned
by D L (7.32–34) in his list of skeptic philosophers.
Ed.: Deichgräber (1930) 210–212 (fragments), 264.
RE 3.2 (1899) 1678–79 (#3), M. Wellmann; Idem, A. Cornelius Celsus. Eine Quellenuntersuchung (1913)
123 – 131; I. Andorlini, “Una ricetta del medico Cassio. P.Harris 46,” BASP (1981) 97–100; Fabio
Stok, “La scuola medica empirica a Roma,” ANRW 2.37.1 (1993) 632–633; ECP 122 – 123,
M. Schofield; H. von Staden, “Was Cassius an Empiricist? Reflections on Method,” in Synopia. Studia
humanitatis Antonio Garzya dicata, edd. U. Criscuolo and R. Maisano (1997) 939–966; R.J. Hankinson,
Cause and Explanation in Ancient Greek Thought (1998) 313–314.
Fabio Stok
Cassius Felix (ca 400 – 450 CE)
Renowned physician in Roman north Africa. In the De Miraculis Sancti Stephani protomartyris (PL
41.833–854), he is a widely admired and honored archiater of Carthage, rendering a pessim-
istic diagnosis in a case of facial paralysis. That corresponds with a funerary inscription from
Cirta (CIL 8.7566) attesting an ancestral home, where he probably became a respected prac-
titioner before going to Carthage. His De medicina is dedicated (according to the 13th c. Codex
Parisinus Latinus 6114) to the consuls Artaburus and Calepius, i.e. 447 CE. Moreover,
A’s account of Innocentius (Civ. Dei. 22.8.3) reflects physicians at Carthage
not only among the rich and powerful, but also frequently in contact their counterparts in
Alexandria (.. .nisi ut adhiberet Alexandrinum quondam, qui tunc chirurgus mirabilis habebatur.. .).
Cassius was one of several prominent physicians in Roman Africa eminent in 5th c.
politics (others include V and T P), and Cassius’ De
medicina reflects local Punic dialects, as well as common knowledge of Greek in learned
circles (H, G, etc. are sources of sections in the De medicina). Perhaps
trilingual, Cassius uses Semitic terms only incidentally in transliteration, revealing Latin
as the language of medicine, law, and politics. He probably maintained communication
with physicians and medical teachers in Alexandria, citing Greek texts of the Commentaries on
the Aphorisms of Hippocrates, set down in the mid 4th c. by M N (Med. 29.1:
...omnia haec quinque secundum expositionem Magni iatrosophistae super memoratus senior Hippocrates
cum discretione; also 76.3). Cassius composed his De medicina as a practical guide based on
Greek sources but, as is also true in the late Alexandrian commentaries, he infuses his
translations and citations with his own personal experiences as a medical practitioner.
Ed.: A. Fraisse, Cassius Felix De la médecine (CUF 2002).
A. Köhler, “Handschriften römischer Mediziner II: Cassius Felix,” Hermes 18 (1883) 392–395;
O. Probst, “Biographisches zu Cassius Felix,” Philologus 67, n.f. 21 (1908) 319–320; E. Wölfflin,
“Über die Latinität des Afrikaners Cassius Felix” in Ausgewählte Schriften (1933) 225–230; G. Bardy,
“Saint Augustin et les médecins,” Année Théologique Augustinienne, 13 (1953) 327–346 esp. 331–332;
B.H. Warmington, The North African Provinces from Diocletian to the Vandal Conquest (1954) 103–111;
G. Bendz, “Textkritisches zu Cassius Felix” in Studien zu Caelius Aurelianus und Cassius Felix (1964)
CASSIUS FELIX