D. Iunius Silanus (ca 146 BCE)
Led the group of translators whom the Roman Senate commissioned to render into Latin
the 28 books on agriculture by Mago of Carthage (P 18.22–23). Pliny cites him as a
source for his books on cereals, viticulture, and arboriculture (1.ind.14–15, 17–18).
RE 10.1 (1918) 1088–9 (#160), F. Münzer.
Philip Thibodeau
I ⇒ P T
Iustinianus Imp. (600 – 800 CE?)
Two lost works are attributed to Iustinianus in the early table in MS Marcianus gr. 299: Letter
and five Chapters on the Divine Art and Discussion Addressed to the Philosophers. A fragment entitled
Procedure of the Emperor Iustinianus survives (CAAG 2.384–387), and added to MS Marcianus
gr. 299 in a 15th c. hand is a text written in an almost barbarous dialect ending with the
words “thus is accomplished, with the aid of God, the procedure of Iustinianus” (CAAG
2.104–105). Since nowhere else is any alchemy attributed to Iustinianus, Letrouit suggested
a pseudepigraphon; whereas Berthelot (CAAG 1.176) suggested the 7th/8th c. emperor
Iustinianus II.
Ed.: CAAG 2.104–105, 384–387.
CAAG 1.176; Letrouit (1995) 57.
Cristina Viano
Iustinus (Pharm.) (30 BCE – 115 CE)
A A 11.12 ( pp. 609–610 Cornarius) records that A prescribed
Iustinus’ antidote for stone, compounded of cassia, castoreum, cinnamon, kostos, myrrh,
saffron, spikenard, etc., that was later prescribed by O. The non-Republican
cognomen is first attested in the 1st c. CE: Martial 1.71.1, 11.65.1, and the potter, RE 10.2
(1919) 1337 (#2); cf. also the 2nd c. writers PIR2 I-713, I-871.
Fabricius (1726) 306.
PTK
Iustus the Pharmacologist (30 BCE – ca 150 CE)
Three multi-ingredient pharmaceutical recipes are recorded under the name of a Iustus,
who apparently lived around the time of R and A: cf. M
S in A A 6.11 (CMG 8.2, pp. 151–152). One is by M
B, 25.32 (CML 5.2, pp. 422–424), using peppercorns added to four ingredients
(wind rose, vervain, sorrel, the roots of a mullein [Verbascum thapsus L.; cf. André 1985: 40]) in
a sitzbath for the relief of sciatic pains in the hips.
The second is a hiera (Aëtios of Amida 3.117 [CMG 8.1, p. 306] = slightly rearranged
in P A 7.8.3 [CMG 9.2, p. 287]) containing 23 ingredients (two kinds of
aristolokhia [birthwort], “white” and “black” pepper, each counted as a single component)
- salted honey-water administered in increasing dosages. The compound also includes
thyme, germander, black hellebore, shelf-fungus, roasted squill, pulp from a gourd, aloe,
saffron, opopanax, cassia and cinnamon, pennyroyal, and myrrh, among the 23, quite
D. IUNIUS SILANUS