I A ⇒ A
Iulius Bassus (ca 10 – 40 CE)
Friend of S N (C A, Acut. 3.135 [Drabkin, p. 386; CML
6.1.1, p. 372]; the MS has TVLLIVS), who appears in the listing of “less-than-accurate”
Askle ̄piadeans in D, pr.2 (Beck p. 2), and as one of P’s Greek auctores
(1.ind. 20 – 27), but among “medical writers” (1.ind. 33 – 34). Caelius Aurelianus (ibid.) cites
Bassus as prescribing sternutatories and enemas in treating rabies, instead of the Methodist
therapy of alternating remedies (metasyncritica). S L, Comp. 121 (ed.
Sconocchia, pp. 63–64 = A in G, CMLoc 9.4 [13.280–281 K.]) records
his “wonderful remedy for intestinal colic,” which “gives relief quickly and then counters
the bloated state of the lower bowel along with all of the other parts of the body.” Among the
ingredients are spikenard oil (Nardostachys jatamansi DC.), white pepper, black pepper (viz. the
unshelled peppercorns), henbane-root (Hyoscyamus niger L.), myrrh, frankincense, cabbage
seeds, the latex of the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum L.), and beaver-castor; such a com-
pound would engender a mild narcotic effect. Andromakhos adds mandrake root-bark, and
hemlock seeds (Conium maculatum L.; the dried, unripe “fruits” are a potent sedative and
narcotic); cf. Bassus’ clipped formulas quoted by Gale ̄n from Andromakhos in CMLoc 7.2
and CMGen 7.13 (13.60 and 1033 K.). If the quotations are representative, Bassus was adept
at devising effective anodynes and narcotics for chronic illnesses affecting the digestive tract.
RE 10.1 (1918) 180–181, M. Wellmann; Scarborough and Nutton (1982) 205.
John Scarborough
C. Iulius Caesar (77 – 44 BCE)
Roman statesman, historian, orator,
accomplished military general, politician
and dictator, born 100 BCE to an ancient
but recently undistinguished patrician
family. He saw military service in Asia in
the 70s, defeating an advance force of
M VI and receiving the corona
ciuica for service at the sack of Mile ̄tos. He
published legal orations and eulogies, was
elected tribunus militum in 73, served as
quaestor and praetor in Further Spain, and
consul in 59. As governor of Illyricum,
Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul for an
unprecedented ten years, he launched
campaigns against Helvetian uprisings,
resulting in economic depletion of his
provinces, deaths of one million Gauls,
enslavement of another million (by his
own account), and conquest of Gaul.
Caesar also engaged in civil war against
Pompeius Magnus and senatorial forces from 48–47, and the Alexandrine war to avenge
C. Iulius Caesar Courtesy of the Vatican Museums
C. IULIUS CAESAR