cataracts, invented by Aglaias himself (v. 4). A A (7.101, CMG 8.2, p. 351)
quotes in prose the same prescription (naming the inventor as Aglaidas). The verses must
have been well known, as a scholion to N’ Alexipharmaca 314 mentions one phrase.
Aglaias calls himself a physician (verse 2) and addresses the poem to an unknown poet
De ̄me ̄trios (verse 3). The two MSS further reveal that Aglaias belonged to an illustrious
family of Buzantion (the poet likewise attests this origin: verse 1), was a pupil of Alexander
(probably A P, the physician), and schoolmate and friend of
D (apparently, the famous ophthalmologist), dating Aglaias to the reigns of
Claudius/Nero. The style is obscure: in some cases the ingredients are expressed through
mythological circumlocutions recalling Lykophro ̄n and Dosiadas (e.g. verses 10, 14, 15–6).
Ed.: Claudio De Stefani, “Aglaia di Bisanzio, SH 18: edizione critica e note,” in G. Cresci Marrone
and A. Pistellato, edd., Studi in ricordo di Fulviomario Broilo. Atti del Convegno Venezia, 14–15 ottobre 2005
(2007) 266–275.
Claudio De Stefani
A ⇒ A
Agnellus of Ravenna (ca 590 – 615 CE)
Gradually coming to light are lectures or perhaps lecture notes by a master physician and
teacher (iatrosophista) in Byzantine Ravenna, probably based on similar commentaries then
taught as part of a “medical curriculum” at Alexandria. Attempts to link the medical
professor with St. Agnellus (ca 525 – 555) are not fruitful, nor is there firm evidence connect-
ing medical lectures with Patricius Agnellus, sent to Africa by Theodoric between 507 and
- Agnellus iatrosophista knew Greek and was aware of the sequence of topics taught over
about two years in Byzantine Alexandria, a curriculum preserved in outline in Arabic and
confirmed by surviving Greek texts of several elaborate commentaries; medical and exe-
getical tracts function on two levels: first, students receive commentaries on selected works
from a “canon” of H and G; then the professor interlards his own experi-
ences as a practitioner within the commentary, a characteristic displayed by Agnellus in
Latin and S A, I A, and others in Greek. The
Latin MSS are a tangle of attributions and misattributions, but diligence has begun to bring
some order and restoration of both authors’ names and the actual works, indicating a lively
northern Italian medical and intellectual life in the late 6th and early 7th c.
Ed.: L.G. Westerink et al., Agnellus of Ravenna: Lectures on Galen’s De sectis (1981); N. Palmieri, Agnellus de
Ravenne. Lectures galéniques: le «De pulsibus ad tirones» (2005); D. Irmer, Palladius. Kommentar zu Hippokrate
“De fracturis” und seine Parallelversion under dem Namen des Stephanus von Alexandria (1977); C.D. Pritchett,
Iohannis Alexandandrini Commentaria In sextum librum Hippocratis Epidemiarum (1975); Idem, Iohannis Alexan-
drini Commentaria In librum De sectis Galeni (1982); J.M. Duffy, Stephanus the Philosopher. A Commentary on the
Prognosticon of Hippocrates (1983) = CMG 11.1.2; L.G. Westerink, Stephanus of Athens. Commentary on
Hippocrates’ Aphorisms (1985–1995 = CMG 11.1.3.1–3; Dickson (1998); J.M. Duffy, Commentary on
Hippocrates’ Epidemics VI Fragments. Commentary of an Anonymous Author on Hippocrates’ Epidemics VI Frag-
ments [and] T.A. Bell et al., John of Alexandria. Commentary on Hippocrates’ On the Nature of the Child (1997) =
CMG 11.1.4.
O. Temkin, “Studies on Late Alexandrian Medicine. I. Alexandrian Commentaries on Galen’s De sectis
ad introdocendos,” BHM 3 (1935) 405–435 = The Double Face of Janus and Other Essays in the History of
Medicine (1977) 178–197; A.Z. Iskandar, “An Attempted Reconstruction of the Late Alexandrian
AGNELLUS OF RAVENNA