first of the very clipped 47 chapters (Ad capitis fracturam) is a Latin translation of the Greek in
D 2.170. Many of the MSS carry fictive illuminations, with only a few
remotely resembling the plants under discussion. The Pseudo-Apulei Platonici herbarius begins
with the fanciful quem accepit a Cirone centauro, magistro Achillis, et ab Aesculapio, then comes the
obligatory Apuleius Platonicus ad ciues suos (CML 4, p. 15); this Herbarius has numerous illumin-
ations throughout its 131 chapters (CML 4, pp. 22–225), with (e.g.) 1.1–24 single lines
(or sometimes two) suggesting for what herba plantago might be used (the artist got the tassels
right, but has ballooned the leaves beyond recognition: CML 4, p. 22). Surprising is the
folklore-free chapter 131, Effectus herbae mandragorae (CML 4, p. 222), which is as sober as the
account in I H, Etym. 27.9.30, or the pseudo-Dioskouridean De herbis
femininis 15 (599–600 Kästner). The next page (folio?), however, provides a classic illustration
of the man-like mandragora, bound at the ankles with a rope extending to a dog’s collar (the
dog is stretching the rope as it sniffs a ball-like object, presumably a culinary reward for
pulling up the mandrake roots). Howald and Sigerist believe the mandrake is an inter-
polation (CML 4, p. ).
The very brief and anonymous De taxone (CML 4, pp. 229–232) purports to be a letter to
A (version No. 2 [the text is in two columns]: Partus rex Aegyptiorum Octauio Augusto
salutem), and contains some generalities about remedies derived from badgers (or perhaps
“bacon-fat” [Isid., Orig. 20.2.24]). There are no illuminations, and one can doubt if this tiny
text has an Egyptian pedigree. And the Liber medicinae Sexti Placiti Papyriensis ex animalibus
pecoribus et bestiis uel auibus (CML 4, pp. 235–298) carries no pictures, and the 130 chapters are
closer to the Pliny-excerptors than the remainder of these texts; the editors adduce frequent
parallels to Pliny, often gained through Marcellus. Much Dreckapotheke is interwoven, e.g. 5:
De capra, 24: Ad luxum (CML 4, p. 255): Idem stercus facit ad luxum et tumores discutit et non patitur
postmodum consurgere, or 26 (p. 256): Ad carbunculos: idem stercus caprae cum melle conmixtum et
superpositum carbuncolos, qui in uentre nascuntur, discutit. The author suggests a mix of goat
manure, beaver-castor, myrrh, and honey, and made into little pastilles and inserted
into the mouth of the womb as an excellent abortifacient (5.41: Ad aborsum [CML 4,
pp. 255–256]).
Ed.: H.F. Kästner, “Pseudo-Dioscoridis De herbis femininis,” Hermes 31 (1896) 578–636; E. Howald
and H.E. Sigerist, Antonii Musae De herba vettonica liber. Pseudoapulei herbarius. Anononymi De taxone liber.
Sexti Placiti Liber medicinae ex animalibus etc. (1927) = CML 4.
H.E. Sigerist, “Zum Herbarius Pseudo-Apuleius,” Sudhoffs Archiv 23 (1930) 197–204; Idem, “The
Medical Literature of the Middle Ages,” BHM 2 (1934) 26–52; Idem, “Materia Medica in the Middle
Ages,” BHM 7 (1939) 417–423; L.E. Voigts, “The Significance of the Name Apuleius to the
Herbarium Apulei,” BHM 52 (1978) 214–227; J.M. Riddle, “Pseudo-Dioscorides’ Ex herbis femininis and
Early Medieval Medical Botany,” JHB 14 (1981) 43–81; Önnerfors (1993) 318.
John Scarborough
Aquila Secundilla (10 BCE – 95 CE)
A twice cites her: for a terebinth-based ointment containing myrrh, gentian
(cf. G), sulfur, and white pepper, G, CMGen 7.6 (13.976 K.), and for an
akopon potion containing myrrh, euphorbia (cf. I), malabathron, etc., ibid. 7.12
(13.1031 K.). The name Aquila/Akulas is first attested in the mid-1st c. BCE: Suetonius,
Iulius 78.2; LGPN 3A.23, 3B.21; PIR2 A-979.
Parker (1997) 145 (#48).
PTK
AQUILA SECUNDILLA