(the “oil,” good for worms, says Seuerus), rose-water, opium-poppy capsules, etc. Seuerus’
Enemas is not so much a physician’s handbook, as a student’s guide to the major substances
used in enemas, and since the contexts are decidedly Egyptian, this might have been a
“Cliff’s Notes” for students attending medical lectures in Alexandria.
Ed.: Fr.R. Dietz, Severi Iatrosophistae De clysteribus liber (1836).
RE 2A.2 (1923) 2011, F.E. Kind; Kollesch (1973) 86–87; L.J. Bliquez, “Two Lists of Greek Surgical
Instruments and the State of Surgery in Byzantine Times,” DOP 38 (1984) 187–204.
John Scarborough
Seuerus the Ophthalmologist (20 – 40 CE?)
In Book 7 (ophthalmology) of his Tetrabiblos, A A features Seuerus, a well-
known physician and eye-doctor in the first decades of the 1st c. CE. Seuerus became an
important authority alongside his contemporary D for diagnostics, prognoses,
and treatments of the numerous ophthalmologic afflictions common (then and now) in the
Mediterranean world. As a practicing physician, Aëtios respectfully summarizes Seuerus’
“Standard Treatment of Ulcerous Eyes” (CMG 8.2, pp. 267–268), who sensibly notes that
“.. .initially, one observes the whole body so that overabundances are to be reduced by
phlebotomy or purges or enemas... [one must] restore the proper proportion (eukrasia)
to the ill: one must promote regular bowel function, massage the legs vigorously, [have the
patient] take pleasant and frequent walks each day, drink water, and bathe only infrequently;
the mildest eye-salves are to be employed in treatment of an ophthalmic ulcer... especially
that prepared from the sap of the fenugreek.” The juice of Trigonella foenum-graecum L. seeds
is a strong demulcent, quite suitable to treat crusted ulcers on the eye. Particularly famous
was Seuerus’ “powdered eye-medicine,” simply known by its eponym “The Seuerian”
(G, CMLoc 4.7 [12.734 K.]; Aëtios 7.45, 100 [CMG 8.2, pp. 296, 344]; P
A 3.22, 7.16 [CMG 8.1, pp. 182–183, 8.2, p. 337]; etc.), and appears among
collyrium stamps (cf. Voinot 1981–1982: #87, 100, and 105, and Marganne 1994: 154,
fig.12). Seuerus was a skilled surgeon (Eadem, 155–159), and favored finely-ground and
powdered drugs exemplified by Aëtios 7.87, “Treatments for Lachrymal Fistula” (CMG 8.2,
pp. 331–334).
Ed.: J. Hirschberg, Die Augenheilkunde des Aëtius aus Amida (1899), esp. 107–115; Aëtios, CMG 8.2,
pp. 207–300 (passim); T.H. Shastid, trans. (Aëtios 7.45), “History of Ophthalmology” in C.A. Wood,
ed., The American Encyclopedia and Dictionary of Ophthalmology 11 (1918) 8662–8664.
RE 2A.2 (1923) 2010–2011, F.E. Kind; H. Nielsen, Ancient Ophthalmological Agents (1974); E. Savage-
Smith, “Hellenistic and Byzantine Ophthalmology: Trachoma and Sequelae,” DOP 38 (1984)
169 – 186 at 178–179, 185.
John Scarborough
S ⇒ H (A.)
Severus Sebokht of Nisibis (630 – 667 CE)
Appointed bishop of Qennesˇre, the site of a monastery and famous school that promoted
Greek science and literature in Syriac. In addition to writing on theology, logic, grammar
and mathematics, he excelled in philosophy, geography, astronomy and astrology. Of his
surviving scientific treatises, one concerns the astrolabe, and another the constellations.
SEVERUS SEBOKHT OF NISIBIS