process of multiplication and division. MSS contain numerous multiplication and division
charts, and tables of standard weights and measures (oils, honeys, lengths, liquid and dry
measures).
Ed.: MSR 2.87–88; G. Friedlein, “Der Calculus des Victorius,” ZMP 16 (1871) 42–79.
GRL §1229.8; F.K. Ginzel, Handbuch der mathematischen Chronologie (1914) 3.245–247; RE 8A.2 (1958)
2086 – 2087 (#8), W. Enßlin.
GLIM
Heluius Vindicianus (ca 350 – 410 CE)
Prominent politician and physician, perhaps receiving literary and medical education in
Roman Gaul, Vindicianus appears as a gifted and crusty rhetorician of advanced years in
A’s Confessions (4.3.5; 7.6.8; cf. Ep. 138.3), then resident in Carthage, holding
the rank of comes and likely archiater. Augustine’s youthful studies on astrology may have
attracted the attention of Vindiciater, who detested such irrational approaches to diagnosis
and prognosis: uir sagax, acutus senex, magnus ille nostrorum temporum medicus, so says Augustine
of Vindicianus. Formerly court physician to Valentinian, Vindicianus’ medical skills were
outstanding enough to win the emperor’s extension of privileges to loyal court doctors
and their families, especially to those like Vindicianus who had attained the rank of comes
(Cod.Theod., 12.3.12 [14 Sept., 379]; cf. Cod.Theod., 11.31.7 [3 Dec., 379]). Likely, too, archiatri
functioned as teachers, and T P and C F were both proud
to be Vindicianus’ students. That medical education was fairly widespread in the 4th c. is
indicated by Symmachus’ Relationes (# 27: a perfectissimus demands the salary of archiater
in Rome), as well as the medically informed poetry of Ausonius, whose father I
A was court physician to Valentinian I.
Remnants of Vindicianus’ medical writings demonstrate a respect for the Greek medical
classics, esp. G and S, but with a practical twist emphasizing folk remedies,
careful analysis of pharmaceuticals, and avoidance of gratuitous surgeries. An extant Epistula
Vindiciani to Valentinian evinces expertise in medicinals to ease constipation, and the Epistula
Vindiciani ad Pentadium (ed. Rose, pp. 484–492) briefly advises a nephew regarding the then-
canonical doctrine of the four humors derived from Greek tracts (H and
Gale ̄n), which he says he has translated into Latin. The epitomes of Vindicianus’ Gynaecia
suggest close attention to anatomical structures, but details are almost certainly derived from
So ̄ranos’ Gynecology, not from actual dissection. The 13th c. Codex Monacensis (Clm 4622,
ff.40R-45R) preserves Vindicianus’ “Medical Etymology” compiled, as he says, since one
cannot “.. .dissect corpses... because it is prohibited, and... an account is given of the
joints, bones, limbs, and blood vessels of which we consist” (Cilliers 2005: 167). Debru
(1996, 1999) and Cilliers (2005) have concluded that the attribution by Wellmann (1901)
of the Codex Bruxellensis f.48R to Vindicianus is no longer acceptable.
Ed.: V. Rose, Vindiciani Afri Expositionis membrorum quae reliqua sunt... I. Gynaecia quae vocantur; II. Epitoma
uberior altera adhaeret Epistula Vindiciani ad Pentadium [in] Theodori Prisciani Euporiston (1894) 425–492;
M. Niedermann, re-ed. E. Liechtenhan, Epistula Vindiciani Comitis Archiatrorum ad Valentinianum Impera-
torem 1.46–53 in Marcelli De medicamentis (1968; 2 vols.) = CML 5; R.H. Barrow, Prefect and Emperor: The
Relationes of Symmachus A.D. 384 (1973) 148–151 (# 27); L. Cilliers, “Vindicianus’s Gynaecia: Text and
Translation of the Codex Monacensis (Clm 4622),” Journal of Medieval Latin 15 (2005) 153–236.
K. Sudhoff, “Zur Anatomie des Vindicianus,” Zeitschrift für Wissenschaftgeschichte 8 (1915) 414–423;
Th. Haarhof, [“Medicine”] in Schools of Gaul (1920) 87–89; RE 9A.1 (1961) 29–36, W. Enßlin and
HELUIUS VINDICIANUS