I S’ Eclogae Physicae. Aëtios presents various philosophical views in short
thematic entries on cosmology and (meta)physics, meteorology, psychology and perception,
and human physiology and embryology. There are no arguments and no context; many of
the questions posed and answered seem to reflect the concerns of Hellenistic philosophy
and not those of the original philosophers. As for the Pre-Socratic philosophers, many
pieces of information derive from A and T.
Ed.: Diels (1879) 267–444; L. Torraca, trans., I Dossografi Greci (1961); H. Daiber, Aëtius Arabus. Die
Vorsokratiker in arabischer Überlieferung (1980).
J. Mansfeld “Chrysippus and the Placita,” Phronesis 34 (1989) 311–342; Idem, “Physikai doxai and
Problemata physica from Aristotle to Aëtius (and Beyond),” in W.W. Fortenbaugh and D. Gutas,
edd., Theophrastus; his Psychological, Doxographical and Scientific Writings (1992) 63–111; Mansfeld and
Runia (1996); BNP 1 (2002) 274–276 (#2), D.T. Runia.
Jørgen Mejer
Aëtios of Amida (500 – 550 CE)
A scholion to a MS of the Tetrabiblos (CMG 8.1, p. 8) terms the author a “kome ̄tos tou opsikiou,”
indicating that Aëtios was probably a court physician. Traditions and MSS uniformly sug-
gest a floruit in the reign of Justinian (527– 565 CE) and, given the unique preponderance of
obstetrics and gynecology (and large number of contraceptive and abortifacient recipes) in
Book 16 of the Tetrabiblos, it is also likely that Aëtios was a personal physician to the empress
Theodo ̄ra (d. 548 CE), whose checkered career receives scurrilous if overdrawn detail in
Prokopios’ Arcana. Aëtios studied medicine in Alexandria (Tetr. 1.131; 1.132; 2.121; cf. 4.22
[CMG 8.1, pp. 65, 67, 197, 368]), and may have practiced for a time in Egypt before moving
to Constantinople.
Olivieri collated 29 MSS to produce the CMG edition of Books 1–8 of the Sixteen Books
(Grk. Tetrabiblos, so named for the usual subdivision into four blocks of four books each), and
the large number of texts (showing widespread popularity) descending into the Renaissance
generally militated against meticulous editing of the Greek, although good translations into
Latin appeared in the 16th c. (Cornarius [1542] remains the only complete and fairly
reliable edition of Aëtios’ gigantic handbook). Dry in style but remarkably comprehensive,
the Tetrabiblos reflects the teaching of medicine in 6th c. Alexandria: an authoritative text is
quoted, then the practicing physician adds his own experiences, especially those recipes for
drugs and surgical techniques found to be beneficial; probably Aëtios had at hand a well
stocked medical library in Alexandria, as well as in Constantinople. Book 1 begins with a
famous “drugs-by-degrees” summary, the theoretical constructs of pharmacy that pre-
dominated until medicinal chemistry in the 19th c. Significant are Aëtios’ accounts of
mastectomies, embryotomies, abortions (never after the third month, never before), and
repair of inguinal hernias in Book 16, the toxicology in Book 13, general surgery in 14, and
the rightly famous ophthalmology in Book 7. Pho ̄tios includes a lengthy summary of Aëtios’
work in the Bibliotheca, and is duly impressed, concluding, “Indeed, those who have chosen
to demonstrate through their [medical] practice that [medical] attention can drive away
diseases [or afflictions], should devote continual study and close attention to this work”
(Biblioth., 221.181a R. Henry).
Ed.: [Latin] J. Cornarius, Aetii medici graeci contractae ex veteribus medicinæ Tetrabiblos, etc. (1542): still
essential for Books 9–16; A. Olivieri, Aetii Amideni Libri medicinales I–IV, V–VIII (1935, 1950) = CMG
8.1–2; J. Hirschberg, Die Augenheilkunde des Aëtius aus Amida (1899); Ch. Daremberg and Ch.É. Ruelle,
AE ̈TIOS OF AMIDA