104 Hippocratic Corpus and Diocles of Carystus
first of all to deserve mention, separated this discipline from the study of wisdom;
he was a man outstanding both for his skill [in medicine] and for his eloquence.^7
In the sequel to this passage, Celsus describes a further stage in the develop-
ment of the medical art. He presents Diocles, Praxagoras and Chrysippus,
as well as Herophilus and Erasistratus, as men who exercised the art to
such an extent that they developed different ways of healing, and he points
out that ‘also, in the same period’ a divison of medicine took place into
regimen, pharmacology, and surgery:
Post quem Diocles Carystius, deinde Praxagoras et Chrysippus, tum Herophilus
et Erasistratus, sic artem hanc exercuerunt ut etiam in diuersas curandi uias pro-
cesserint. ( 9 ) Isdemque temporibus in tres partes medicina diducta est ut una es-
set quae uictu, altera quae medicamentis, tertia quae manu mederetur. Primam
#
, secundam
, tertiam
Graeci nomi-
narunt.
After him Diocles of Carystus, and later Praxagoras and Chrysippus, and then
Herophilus and Erasistratus practised the art in such a way that they even pro-
ceeded into diverse modes of treatment. ( 9 ) Also, in the same times, medicine was
divided into three parts, so that there was one which healed by regimen, another
by drugs, and a third manually. The Greeks named the first dietetics, the second
pharmaceutics, the third surgery.
However, Celsus then seems to suggest that within dietetics (eius autem
quae uictu morbos curat) a renewed interest in theoretical speculation took
place: for he says that there were ‘famous authorities’ who, out of a desire for
deeper understanding, claimed that for this purpose knowledge of nature
was indispensable, because without it medicine was truncated and impotent
(trunca et debilis).
Eius autem quae uictu morbos curat longe clarissimi auctores etiam altius quaedam
agitare conati rerum quoque naturae sibi cognitionem uindicarunt, tamquam sine
ea trunca et debilis medicina esset. ( 10 ) Post quos Serapion, primus omnium nihil
hanc rationalem disciplinam pertinere ad medicinam professus, in usu tantum et
experimentis eam posuit. Quem Apollonius et Glaucias et aliquanto post Hera-
clides Tarentinus et aliqui non mediocres uiri secuti ex ipsa professione se empiricos
appellauerunt. ( 11 ) Sic in duas partes ea quoque quae uictu curat medicina diuisa
est, aliis rationalem artem, aliis usum tantum sibi uindicantibus, nullo uero quic-
quam post eos qui supra comprehensi sunt agitante nisi quod acceperat donec
Asclepiades medendi rationem ex magna parte mutauit.
Yet as for that part of medicine which cures diseases by regimen, by far the most
famous authorities also tried to deal with some things at even greater depth and
also claimed for themselves a knowledge of the nature of things as if, without this,
(^7) Translation according to van der Eijk ( 2000 a) 3 – 5.