To help, or to do no harm 109
A comparison between the two accounts shows that the therapeutic in-
structions derived fromOn Treatmentsare much more detailed and show
greater differentiation according to the individual patient. The fact that
a lead pill is not mentioned in the report of the therapeutic section of
Affection, Cause, Treatmentmay be a matter of coincidence, or of Caelius’
selectivity in reporting, but it may be significant that such a pill is also men-
tioned in another testimony where the two works are compared, in Caelius’
discussion of Diocles’ treatment of epilepsy (Chronic Affections 1. 4. 132 ).^17
Moreover, in this text, as inAcute Affections 3. 8. 87 (which deals with the
treatment of tetanus), Caelius suggests that the therapeutic section of
Diocles’Affection, Cause, Treatmentdifferentiated according to the cause of
the disease, as one would expect from a work with this title.^18
(^17) ‘Again, Diocles, in the book in which he wrote on affections, recommends venesection for those
who have caught this affection because of excessive drinking or eating of meat, [thereby] considering
antecedent causes rather than present ones. Yet for those who have incurred this affection because
of the usual state of their body, he recommends the withdrawal of a thick humour, which he called
phlegma. He also applies drugs that stimulate the urinary passages, which people call diuretica, and
also walking and being carried around. Yet even if these were real remedies, because of the smallness
of their number and of their power it could hardly be said that they are strong enough against this
great affection, or that they are sufficient for its destruction. Again, in the book of treatments he
applies venesection and uses as medicine a pill which turns the stomach and causes vomiting after
dinner by filling the head with exhalations. He gives vinegar to drink, and by causing sneezing
before the patients fall asleep he troubles the sensory passages at a highly untimely moment. He also
gives wormwood, centaury, ass’s milk, and the scab of horses or mules not indicating the time these
measures should be applied but afflicting the patients with dreadful things’ (Item Diocleslibro, quo de
passionibusscripsit, in his, qui ex uinolentia uel carnali cibo istam passionem conceperint, phlebotomiam
probat, antecedentes potius quam praesentes intuens causas. in his uero, qui ex corporis habitudine in
istam uenerint passionem, humoris crassi detractionem probat adhibendam, quem appellauit phlegma.
utitur etiam urinalibus medicamentis, quae diuretica uocant. item deambulatione ac gestatione, quae si
etiam uera essent adiutoria, ob paruitatem tamen numeri et magnitudinis suae, magnae passioni difficile
possent paria pronuntiari aut eius destructioni sufficere. Itemlibro curationumphlebotomans utitur
medicamine catapotio, quod stomachum euertit atque post cenam uomitum facit, exhalationibus implens
caput. potat etiam aceto
profecto intemporaliter commouet sensuales uias. dat etiam absinthium, centaurion et lac asininum et
equorum impetigines uel mulorum neque tempus adiciens factis et odiosis aegrotantes afficiens rebus);
Diocles, fr. 99 vdE; the titlede passionibusis an abbreviation forde passionibus atque causis earum et
curationibus; the singularlibro curationumis not in accordance with the other references to the work
(see n. 12 above), which is possibly, again, due to lack of precision on Caelius Aurelianus’ part. On
the relative infrequence of the use of pills in early Greek medicine see Goltz ( 1974 ) 206 – 7.
(^18) ‘Diocles, in the book in which he wrote on affections, causes and treatments, says that with people
suffering from tetanus one should apply drugs that promote urine, which he called “diuretics”, and
then one should purge and evacuate the stomach. He also gives raisin wine mixed with water to drink
to children or to those who have contracted the affection because of a wound. He also prohibits the
giving of food and he prescribes the application of vapour baths to the [parts] that are stiffened by
the affection and to make them flexible. Again, in the third bookOn Treatments, he similarly uses a
clyster and gives sweet wine to drink and applies vapour baths, sometimes dry ones, sometimes wet
ones, and he anoints the affected parts with wax-salve and covers them with wool’ (Diocleslibro, quo
passiones atque causas atque curationes scripsit,tetanicis inquit adhibenda mictoria medicamina,
quae appellauit diuretica, tum uentrem deducendum atque