A. Cornelius Celsus (15 – 35 CE)
Life. Encyclopedist, worked during the Tiberian age (at pr.69 he states that he knew
Cassius, the Empiricist physician who had cured Tiberius). The nomen Cornelius is fre-
quent in Gallia Narbonensis and north Spain, but Celsus certainly worked in Rome (it may
be he who is attested in CIL 6.4/2.36285, close to his wife’s name, Sabina). From Quintilian
(Inst. 10.1.124) we know that Celsus had been a follower of the philosophical school of the
S, from which he could have inherited his interest in science and medicine. But at
the time he wrote his work he was not following the vegetarian doctrine of this school (in the
De medicina he proposes meat-based recipes); furthermore, he never mentions S
N, son of the founder of that school and medical writer.
It is a debated question whether Celsus actually practiced medicine. He was probably of
noble family, hence it is unlikely that he practiced a profession that at Rome was typical of
freedmen or immigrants; moreover, his encyclopedic interests, extending to other fields than
medicine, also render it unlikely. Especially in the surgical section, however, the De medicina
suggests that the author had a practical experience, and that that section is addressed to
practicing physicians, able to perform complex operations. Medical practice is suggested
also by his references (2.17.1; 3.21.6) to hot baths near Baiae (Campania), where he perhaps
owned a villa used for thermal therapy.
Wo rk s. His encyclopedia was divided into disciplinary sections: agriculture (five books),
medicine (eight books), rhetoric (perhaps seven books), philosophy (perhaps six books),
military science, and perhaps jurisprudence. Only the section on medicine (De medicina) is
preserved; there are fragments of other sections (agriculture; rhetoric).
Structure of De medicina. The De medicina comprises eight books divided into three sections,
dietetics (Books 1–4), pharmacology (Books 5–6) and surgery (Books 7–8). The section on
dietetics comprises subsections on hygiene (Book 1) and semiotics (2.1–8). The present
Prooemium probably combines the original proem to the entire work, containing a brief history
of the medicine since its beginnings up to T (1–11), and the proem to the dietetics
(12–75). The other two sections, pharmacology and surgery, are also introduced by brief
proems.
Celsus and the Medical Schools. The proem to dietetics comprises an outline of
the principles of the Rationalist (13–26) and the Empiricist medicine (27–44), fol-
lowed by an outline of Celsus’ own position (45–53): on the one hand, he appropriates
the Empiricist principle that therapy must be based on experience, on the other hand
he states that medicine is “an art based on conjecture” (48). His approach is avowedly
a probabilistic one, based on the pursuit of the probable (ueri similis) and of statements
“as may seem nearest to the truth” (45). Moreover, his decision to confront the positions
of the different schools is inspired by a probabilistic approach (disputatio in utramque
partem).
Celsus’ own position has received conflicting interpretations: in the past he has been viewed
as a Rationalist, an Empiricist, a follower of A B. The proem is
certainly influenced by Empiricism (probably especially by the moderate Empiricism
of H T, who introduced into the Empiricist tradition rational ele-
ments). Empiricist arguments can be seen in Celsus’ criticism of E and of the
Methodist school (54–73) and in his disapproval of Alexandrian vivisection (74–75); as for
vivisection, however, Celsus disapproved of it not only on theoretical grounds (as the
Empiricists did) but on humanitarian ones as well.
A. CORNELIUS CELSUS