Oribasius
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Oribasius or Oreibasius (Greek:Ορειβάσιος) (c. 320-400) was a Greek medical writer and the personal physician of the Roman emperor Julian the Apostate. He studied at Alexandria under physician Zeno of Cyprus[1] before joining Julian's retinue. He was involved in Julian's coronation in 361, and remained with the emperor until Julian's death in 363. In the wake of this event, Oribasius was banished to foreign courts for a time, but was later recalled by the emperor Valens.
Oribasius's major works, written at the behest of Julian, are two collections of excerpts from the writings of earlier medical scholars, a collection of excerpts from Galen and the Collectiones, a massive compilation of excerpts from other medical writers of the ancient world. The first of these works is entirely lost, and only 25 of the 70 (or 72) books of the Collectiones survive. This work preserves a number of excerpts from older writers whose writings have otherwise been lost, and has thus been valuable to modern scholars.
History has it that in 362, on behalf of his emperor Julian the Apostate, Oribasius visited the Delphic oracle, now in a rather desolate state, offering his emperor's services to the temple and, in return, receiving the very last prophecy by the Delphic Pythia:
Εἴπατε τῷ βασιλεῖ, χαμαὶ πέσε δαίδαλος αὐλά, οὐκετι Φοῖβος ἔχει καλύβαν.
Οὐ μαντίδα δαφνήν, οὐ πηγὴν λαλέουσαν, ἀπέσβετο καὶ λάλον ὕδωρ.
Report to the emperor, fallen is [the] splended hall, Phoebus no longer has [his] house.
Neither the prophecying laurel nor the well will talk anymore, silent also the babbling water.
[edit] References
- Browning, Robert and Nutton, Vivian, "Oribasius", from The Oxford Classical Dictionary, Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth, ed. (Oxford University Press, 2003) ISBN 0-19-866172-X
- Grant, Mark (author and translator) and Oribasius, Dieting for an Emperor: A Translation of Books 1 and 4 of Oribasius’ „Medical Compilations“. Brill Academic Publishers, Leiden - New York - Cologne 1997; ISBN 90-04-10790-8
- Oribasius: Collectionum Medicarum Reliquiae, I. Libri I-VIII; II; IX-XVI. By J. Raeder (Corpus Medicorum Graecorum VI.1.1-2) Leipzig & Berlin, Teubner 1928-9.
