patients brought forth the incisive Jaundice (extant in Latin and Arabic: Ullmann 1983).
Gale ̄n has enormous admiration for Rufus, frequently citing tracts (occasionally quoting
them in extenso) with obvious approval, e.g. a four-book Herbs in hexameters (Simples pr.
[11.796 K.]), Black Bile (Atra bile 1 [5.105 K. = CMG 5.4.1.1 (1937) 71]), On the Gum-Resin
Labdanum (CMLoc 1 [12.425 K.], perhaps from the verses of Herbs), and the remarkable Pain-
Alleviating Potion (CMLoc 7.5 [13.92–93 K.]). This last is a truly anesthetic compound,
combining with precision the root-bark of mandrake, frankincense, “white” pepper, saffron
crocus, the seeds of henbane, the latex of the opium poppy, myrrh, spikenard, and the
outer rinds of cassia; Rufus (and Gale ̄n) probably employed such drugs as they performed
surgeries or cauteries.
Other writings, known either in toto, in extracts, or by title alone, display his considerable
intellectual attentions: e.g. Satyriasis and Gonorrhea, Purging Drugs, Bones (probably spurious),
Pulses, Diseases of the Joints, Aphrodisiacs, Melancholia, On Rabies, Glaucoma and Diseases of the
Eyes, Fevers, Urines, Commentary on the Hippocratic Airs Waters Places, Andrapodismus, Acute and
Chronic Diseases, Therapeutics (from which Pain-Alleviating Potion is extracted by Gale ̄n), and
many more.
Widely cited, quoted, extracted, recopied and summarized in later Roman, Byzantine,
and Arabic medicine, Rufus of Ephesos’ influence slowly became swamped in the long
shadows cast by Gale ̄n’s prescient synthesis, but it is little surprise that Rufus appears as a
“standard” authority in the famous “Seven Physicians” Folio of the 6th c. Codex Juliana
Anicia (notably absent is H). As late as the 9th c., Rufus’ status was
unquestioned as one of the “Four Silencers of Disease,” to approximate the baroquely
piquant Byzantine Greek phrase (Gossen 1212).
Ed.: Daremberg and Ruelle (1879/1963); H. Gärtner, Rufus von Ephesos. Die Fragen des Artzes an
den Kranken (1962) = CMG S.4; A. Sideras, Rufus von Ephesos. Über die Nieren- und Blasenleiden (1977) =
CMG 3.1; M. Ullmann, Rufus von Ephesos Krankenjournale (1978 [Arabic]); Idem, Die Schrift des Rufus von
Ephesos über die Gelbsucht (1983 [Arabic and Latin]); P.E. Pormann, Rufus of Ephesus On Melancholy =
SAPERE (Scripta Antiquitatis Posterioris ad Ethicam REligionemque pertinentia) 13 (2008 [Arabic, Greek, and
Latin]); Brock (1929) 112–129: partial translations of Interrogation of the Patient and Anatomical
Nomenclature.
RE 1A.1 (1914) 1207–1212, H. Gossen; J. Ilberg, Rufus von Ephesos. Ein griechischer Arzt in trajanischer Zeit
(1930); A. Sideras, Textkritische Beiträge zur Schrift des Rufus von Ephesos De renum et vesicae morbis (1971);
DSB 11 (1974) 601–603, F. Kudlien; Scarborough (1985c); NDSB 6.290–292, V. Nutton.
John Scarborough
Rufus of Samaria (ca 100 CE)
Jewish physician who lived in Rome and wrote in Greek. G refers to Rufus’ commen-
taries on the sixth book of H’ Epidemics in his commentary on the same work,
noting Rufus’ Jewish ethnicity negatively, even as he uses his commentary: CMG 5.10.2.2,
pp. 213, 289, 293, 413.
F. Pfaff, “Rufus aus Samaria: Hippokrateskommentator und Quelle Galens,” Hermes 67 (1932) 356–359;
RE S.6 (1935) 646 (#18a), L. Edelstein; S. Muntner, “Rufus of Samaria,” Israel Medical Journal 17
(1958) 273–275; NP 10.1158, V. Nutton; EJ2 17.527–528, S. Muntner.
Annette Yoshiko Reed
RUFUS OF SAMARIA