91 – 122; G. Sabbah, “Observations préliminaires à une nouvelle edition de Cassius Felix,” in
Mazzini and Fusco (1985) 279–312; E. Giuliani, “Note su alcuni calchi nel De medicina di Cassio
Felice,” Ibid., 313–320; Önnerfors (1993) 336–342; G. Sabbah, “Le De medicina de Cassius Felix à la
charnière de l’Antiquité et du Haut Moyen Age,” in Vázquez Buján (1994) 11–28; M. Conde
Salazar and A. Moreno Hernández, “Estudio del léxico tardio de los tratados latonos africanos de
los siglos IV y V,” Ibid., 241–252; D.R. Langslow, Medical Latin in the Roman Empire (2000) 513 (index
entries, s.v. Cassius Felix).
John ScarboroughCassius Iatrosophist (200 – 240 CE)
Otherwise unattested author of a “proble ̄mata”-work (cf. A C P-
), an oft-used format whose exemplars elude precise dating. The rough chronology
of “early” adaptations is established by starting from the Peripatetic works, and assuming
revisions, accretions, and recombinations, reaching works “.. .at the beginning of the sec-
ond century by... S, [and] about a century later Cassius the Iatrosophist, and still
later by ps.-Alexander Aphrodisias” (Lawn p. 3). Cassius’ work is probably an early 3rd c.
CE collection. A similarly complicated history characterizes a parallel series of compilations
attributed to Alexander of Aphrodisias: see Kapetanaki and Sharples (2006).
The latest editors of Cassius’ work conclude that its vocabulary and style bear affinities to
the works of T S, but Cassius incorporates questions reflecting
Hellenistic and early Roman imperial medical practice, e.g. opinions of He ̄rophileans
and A B (Prob. 1 = Garzya and Masullo pp. 35–37 = Ideler
pp. 144–146, cf. von Staden 1989: 411–412), and a quotation from Askle ̄piade ̄s’ lost On
Wounds (Prob. 40 = Garzya and Masullo p. 55 = Ideler pp. 157–158 = Vallance 1990: 87).
Appearance of Methodist opinions (e.g. Prob. 8 = Garzya and Masullo pp. 39–40 = Ideler,
pp. 147–148 = Tecusan 2004: 269, 271) suggests a flourishing medical sect in full competition
with other medical philosophies, pointing to composition in the time of G or a little
later, as do the several mentions of Alexander of Aphrodisias (Wellmann 1899: 1679).
Questions in Cassius’ Proble ̄mata indicate he was a practicing physician, e.g. the old quan-
dary of why circular wounds take so long to heal (Prob. 1; cf. the diagrams in Majno 1975:
156), or why stubbing one’s toe does not cause swelling unlike the swollen results from blows
to the feet or legs (Prob. 40: Cassius approves Askle ̄piade ̄s’ analogies to water seeking its own
level unless a depression intervenes; cf. Vallance 1990: 87–88). Cassius resolves disputes about
links between sleep and pleasure, by observing that nature sometimes produces divergent
results from a single cause (Prob. 8; cf. T HP 9.18.4; Scarborough 2006: 19).
Ed.: Ideler 1 (1841/1963) 144–167; A. Garzya and R. Masullo (with trans. and comm.), I Problemi di
Cassio Iatrosofista (2004).
RE 3.2 (1899) 1679–1680, M. Wellmann; B. Lawn, The Salernitan Questions (1963); G. Majno, The
Healing Hand: Man and Wound in the Ancient World (1975); John Scarborough, “Drugs and Drug Lore in
the Time of Theophrastus: Folklore, Magic, Botany, Philosophy and the Rootcutters,” AClass 49
(2006) 1–29.
John Scarborough
Cassius Longinus (ca 240 – 272/3 CE)
Born ca 210; renowned more for his polymathy than philosophical skills, so fond of the
classical authors (P, Vit. Plot. 14.18–20) that E called him “a living
CASSIUS LONGINUS