O ⇒ U
Oreibasios of Pergamon (ca 350 – ca 400 CE)
Born ca 325 CE, well-educated member of the non-Christian aristocracy in Asia Minor,
who from his earliest years associated with orators, writers, and various intellectuals, ranging
from classically-trained physicians to neo-Platonic philosophers. Having studied medicine
in Alexandria with the famous Ze ̄no ̄n of Cyprus (fellow-pupils included I
S and perhaps M A), Oreibasios took up the practice of medicine
as a iatrosophiste ̄s, probably in his home city of Pergamon, famed in its own right for the
ornate and massive temple precincts dedicated to Askle ̄pios. Some time before 350 CE,
he became friend and confidant of Julian (then in forced internal exile by Constantius II),
and when the emperor appointed Julian general in Gaul (355), Oreibasios accompanied
him as personal physician. Another friend of Oreibasios was the sophist and historian
E S, who has given a short account of Oreibasios’ life and career in
Lives of the Philosophers (488–489 Wright [Loeb]). Eunapios asserts that Oreibasios was
fundamental in Julian’s assuming the purple in 361. Oreibasios accompanied Julian on
his last campaign into Persia (363) and was present when Julian died from wounds received
in battle (the fragments of P’ Church History reflect details that can emerge
only from a physician’s journal). Exiled to residence among barbarian tribes north of the
Danube after 364 CE, he was restored to his property and titles ca 380, and lived in honor
until his death.
While serving Julian in Gaul, Oreibasios composed summations of G (now lost),
and after Julian became emperor, Oreibasios prepared an encyclopedia of medicine,
judiciously selecting the best pagan medical works from A to his contemporaries
P and A (Greek only) in conjunction with the short-lived pagan
revival; about a third of this Collectiones medicae survives (25 books of 70 or 72, with many
of the rest deduced from the extant Synopsis ad Eustathium and Ad Eunapium), handbooks
intended for use by laypersons (Eunapios being his friend the doxographer). Often deni-
grated for slavish quotation of earlier authorities, Oreibasios may be responsible for the
survival of Gale ̄n’s reputation (quite uncertain is the circulation of Gale ̄n’s writings
throughout most of the 3rd c.), and in Collectiones medicae, Oreibasios devises a careful
system of editing, summarizing, and fusing much of the self-contradictory, scattered, and
obtuse work of Gale ̄n, editorial mechanics generally followed thereafter by medical
encyclopedists. More importantly, Oreibasios inserts his own professional experiences
among the quotations, so that his own practice becomes a commentary on the great classics
of medicine.
Ed.: Bussemaker, Daremberg, and Molnier (1851–1876): the most useful edition, scholia, Latin trans.
texts, full indices; J. Raeder, Oribasii Collectionum medicarum reliquiae (1928–1933) = CMG 6.1–2, Synopsis
ad Eustathium. Libri ad Eunapium (1926) = CMG 6.3; Mark Grant, Dieting for an Emperor. A Translation of
Books 1 and 4 of Oribasius’ Medical Compilations with Introduction and Commentary (1997); C.L. Day, Quipus
and Witches’ Knots. The Role of the Knot in Primitive and Ancient Cultures with a Translation and Analysis of
Oribasius’ De laqueis (1967); J.W. Humphrey, J.P. Oleson, and A.N. Sherwood, “Machine-Screws and
Nuts in Bone-Setting Devices: Oribasius Compendium of Medicine 49.4.52–58, 5.1–5, 7–9,” Greek and
Roman Technology (1998) 54–55.
RE S.7 (1940) 797–812, H.O. Schröder; A. Sideras, “Aetius und Oribasius,” ByzZ 67 (1974) 110–130;
B. Baldwin, “The Career of Oribasius,” AC 18 (1975) 85–97; Scarborough (1985b) 221–224;
M. Michler, “Zu einer Konjectur in Heliodors Verbandslehre bei Oreibasios,” Hermes 114 (1986)
OREIBASIOS OF PERGAMON