Svenson-Ebers (1996) 116–142; G.B. Waywell, “The sculptors of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus,”
in I. Jenkins and G.B. Waywell, Sculptors and sculpture of Caria and the Dodecanese (1997) 60–67; KLA
2.366–367, G.B. Waywell.
Margaret M. Miles
Saturos of Smurna (130 – 160 CE)
His student G praises him as the best of Q’ students, and mentions his pre-
sence at Pergamon during the anthrax epidemic of 146– 147 CE. Aristide ̄s, Sacred Discourse
3.8–11, records his treatment in Pergamon by Saturos. Gale ̄n preserves Saturos’ words on
“phrenetics,” In Hipp. Prorrhet. (CMG 5.9.2, p. 20), and indicates that he wrote (or taught)
commentaries on the H C, E: In Hipp. Epid. III (CMG 5.10.2.1,
p. 59), In Hipp. Epid. VI (CMG 5.10.2.2, pp. 287, 412–413). Probably Saturos was Gale ̄n’s
primary source for the teachings of Quintus.
Grmek and Gourevitch (1994) 1519–1520; OCD3 1362, V. Nutton; Ihm (2002) #228–229.
PTK
Scribonius Largus (ca 25 BCE – 55 CE)
A Sicilian-born, bi-lingual physician, one of several medical professionals in service at the
courts of Caligula and Claudius (P 29.7); the “Dedicatory Epistle” to Scribonius’
extant Compositiones (Prescriptions or Recipes) reveals his patron as C. Iulius Callistus, a con-
spicuously wealthy and powerful freedman (Comp., pr.1, with Pliny, 36.60) who went to
Britain (43 CE) to assist in supervising arrangements for Claudius’ celebration of conquest.
Scribonius says he too went north (Comp. 163: cum Britanniam peteremus cum deo nostro Caesare),
attending to the needs of the traveling court. He also mentions locales and teachers that
identify him as Sicilian, quite likely a member of the prominent Greco-Roman farmer
intelligentsia characteristic of the new imperial order established by Augustus after 27 BCE,
and the bicultural intellectual heritage is patent in the Compositiones: he cites Greek author-
ities in medicine, known through their writings (H, H, A
P.) as well as contemporary or near-contemporary practitioners from both tradi-
tions (Greek: A P, Z G, T G,
P C, T, A, M S, and others; Roman:
A M, V V, P A, A C, I
B, and M).
Scribonius knows his plants (especially those native to Sicily and the western Mediter-
ranean), minerals, and animal products, is experienced in some of the surgeries and treat-
ments of grievous injuries suffered in the arena (a number of plasters and poultices are
“designed” for gladiators), the complex technologies of drug-preparations, and is a remark-
ably talented and precise compounder of complicated, multi-ingredient, multiple-stage
pharmaceuticals. Repeatedly, the Compositiones provides specifics for the spontaneous prep-
aration of remedies or for storage in their fractions, which then could be mixed as the
requirements arose: e.g. Comp. 70: the remedy for angina (i.e., “quinsy”; cf. sunankhe ̄); the
“For Treatment of a Choking Quinsy” contains 15 ingredients (11 botanicals, one mineral
[“½ ounce of fissile alum”], two animal products [Attic honey used to skim the com-
pounded ingredients, and “one ounce of the ashes of a young wild swallow”], and “five
medium-sized ground oak galls”), all producing a rather effective anodyne lictus applied
SATUROS OF SMURNA