Aulus Cornelius Celsus
Roman encyclopaedist
25 BCE to 50 CE
Aulus Cornelius Celsus (ca 25 BCE—ca 50) was a Roman encyclopaedist, known for his extant medical work, De Medicina, which is believed to be the only surviving section of a much larger encyclopedia.
The De Medicina is a primary source on diet, pharmacy, surgery and related fields, and it is one of the best sources concerning medical knowledge in the Roman world.
The lost portions of his encyclopedia likely included volumes on agriculture, law, rhetoric, and military arts.
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Six of the eight volumes of the encyclopedia on medicine known as De Medicina describe various diseases and discuss therapy using diet, drugs, and manipulation.
Authored by Aulus Cornelius Celsus, a Roman of patrician lineage who flourishes from 10 to 37, the remaining two books deal with surgical topics, including operations for bladder stone, goiter, and hernia, as well as describing tonsillectomy and the removal of eye cataracts.
Celsus also recommends the use of splints and starch-stiffened bandages to treat fractures.
Nothing is known about the life of Celsus.
Even his praenomen is uncertain; he has been called both Aurelius and Aulus, with the latter being more plausible.
Some incidental expressions in his De Medicina suggest that he lived under the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius; which is confirmed by his reference to the eminent physician Themison of Laodicea as being recently in his old age.
It is not known with any certainty where he lived.
He has been identified as the possible dedicator of a gravestone in Rome, but it has also been supposed that he lived in Narbonese Gaul, because he refers to a species of vine (marcum) which, according to Pliny, is native to that region.
It is doubtful whether he practiced medicine himself, and although Celsus seems to describe and recommend his own medical observations sanctioned by experience, Quintilian says that his volumes included all sorts of literary matters, and even agriculture and military tactics.