identified with Sextus Platonicus. The date of the English translation is still debated,
D’Aronco (2007: 38) preferring the late 10th c. Constantine the African (d. after 1081 CE)
rearranged the treatise (Ackermann 1788: 1–112), and it saw several Renaissance printings.
Ed.: E. Howald and H.E. Sigerist, Antonii Musae De herba vettonica liber. Pseudo-Apuleius Herbarius. Anonymi
De taxone liber. Sextii Placiti Liber medicinae ex animalibus = CML 4 (1927).
J.G. Ackermann, Parabilium medicamentorum antiqui (1788); C.H. Talbot and F. Unterkircher, Medicina
antiqua. Codex Vindobonensis 93 der ÖNB. Facsimile & Kommentarband (1971–1972); H. Grape-Albers,
Spätantike Bilder aus der Welt des Arztes (1977); H.J. De Vriend, The Old English Herbarium (1984);
M.P. Segolini, Libri medicinae Sexti Placiti Papyriensis ex animalibus pecoribus et bestiis vel avibus concordantiae
(1998); M.A. D’Aronco, “The Transmission of Medical Knowledge in Anglo-Saxon England: the
Voices of Manuscripts,” in P. Lendinara et al., edd., Form and Content of Instruction in Anglo-Saxon
England in the Light of Contemporary Manuscript Evidence (2007) 35–58.
Alain Touwaide
De Planetis (200 – 300 CE?)
The author explains the powers of single planets, of planetary conjunctions, and of the
planetary figures trine, quadrature, and opposition; the work is sufficiently similar to
F 6.3–27 (on those figures) that Kroll thought a common source likely (cf. also
F. Boll in PSI 3.158, a 3rd c. CE papyrus from Oxyrhynchos). The author apparently
exploited a hexameter poem, of which a few lines remain embedded in the prose (cf. per-
haps M or A). The text proceeds systematically from Kronos (Saturn:
pp. 160–168) inward through Zeus ( Jupiter: pp. 169–173) and Ares (Mars: pp. 173–176) to
the Sun ( p. 176), then Aphrodite ̄ (Venus: pp. 177–178) and Herme ̄s (Mercury: pp. 178–179),
and ending with the Moon ( pp. 179–180). Each planet’s role in melothesia is given (citing
P and V V); then its effects in conjunctions with more inward planets;
then its effects with more inward planets in the three figures (omitting impossible figures).
For the inner planets, Aphrodite ̄, Herme ̄s, and Moon, the effects of “superiority” are
recorded (cf. Manetho ̄n 6.279); for Herme ̄s, the effects of conjunctions with all preceding
planets are repeated.
W. Kroll, CCAG 2 (1900) 159–180.
PTK
Plato ̄n (Med.) (50 BCE – 95 CE)
Wrote On Phlebotomy, of which a Latin translation apparently survives, in MS Monac. 8.2
(16th c.). A P. in G CMLoc 7.2 (13.60 K.) records two cough remed-
ies, both containing sturax, opium, and myrrh, and providing immediate relief. Since not
mentioned in D L 3.109, he probably postdates 50 BCE.
Diels 2 (1907) 86; RE 20.2 (1950) 2542 (#10), Johanna Schmidt.
GLIM
Plato (ca 390 – 348/347 BCE)
Plato ̄n; born at Athens (or Aigina?) 427 BCE, and died in Athens 348/347 BCE. Plato’s
attitude and contribution to ancient natural science are both difficult to judge and have
been the subject of considerable controversy. As Plato wrote dialogues, whose often complex
arguments are sometimes inconclusive, and never appears in person in these works, there
PLATO