Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/456

Rh 438 AURELIANUS. military talents of the higheBt order ; and that to these alone he was indebted for his elevation. One of his most conspicuous virtues as a commander was the rigid discipline which he enforced among legions long accustomed to unbounded license. His rigour, however, was free from caprice, and tempered by stem and inflexible justice; for we find that his soldiers submitted to his rule without a murmur while he was still in a private station, raised him to the throne, served him with fidelity during the period of his dominion, and after his death displayed the most enthusiastic devotion to his memory. His great faults as a statesman were the harshness of his disposition, and the impetuous violence of his passions, which frequently betrayed him into acts of sanguinary cruelty. Diocletian was wont to say, that Aurelian was better fitted to command an army than to govern a state. The wife of Aurelian, we learn from coins and inscriptions, was Ulpia Severina, and, as was re- marked above, is supposed to have been the daugh- ter of his adopted father, Ulpius Crinitus. He had a daughter whose descendants were living at Rome when Vopiscus wrote, (c. 42.) It is worthy of observation, that this humble Pannonian peasant was the first of the Roman princes who openly assumed the regal diadem ; and now for the first time we read upon medals struck during the lifetime of an emperor the arro- gant and impious titles of Lord and God {Deo et Domino nostro Aureliano Aug.). Our chief authorities for the life of Aurelian are an elaborate biography by Vopiscus, founded, as he himself informs us, upon Greek memoirs, and espe- cially upon certain journals kept by the order of the emperor, and deposited in the Ulpian library. We find also some important information in the other writers of the Augustan history, in the minor historians, and in the works of Dexippus and Zosi- mus. But the chronology is involved in inextrica- ble confusion. Coins, which are usually our surest guides, here afford no aid. Thus we cannot decide whether the expedition against Zenobia preceded or followed the submission of Tetricus ; the invasion of the Goths and Vandals, described above as the first event after his accession, is by Tillemont di- vided into two distinct inroads, one before and the other after the Aleniannic war ; so also the evacu- ation of Dacia is placed by Gibbon among the ear- liest acts of his reign, and represented as having exercised a material influence upon the treaty con- cluded with the (jioths, while others refer it to the very close of his life. Although these and all the other events may be regarded as certain, the time when they occurred, and consequently their relation to eat I other, are altogether doubtful. [W. R.J com OP AURELIANTJg. AURELTA'NUS, CAE'LIUS or COE'LIUS, a very celebrated Latin physician, respecting whose age and country there is considerable uncertainty. Some writers place him as early as the first century of the Christian era, while others endeavour to AURELIANUS. prove that he was at least a century later. This opinion is founded principally upon the circum- stance of his not mentioning, or being mentioned by, Galen, indicating that they were contemporar ries or rivals. Numidia has been generally assigned as his native country, but perhaps without any di- rect evidence ; it may, however, be concluded, from the imperfection of his style and the incorrectness of some of the terms which he employs, that he was not a native either of Greece or Italy. But whatever doubts may attach to his personal history, and whatever faults of style may exist in his writings, they afford us much valuable information respecting the state of medical science. He was a professed and zealous member of the sect of the Methodici, and it is principally from his work that we are able to obtain a correct view of the principles and practice of this sect. In his de- scriptions of the phaenomena of disease, he displays considerable accuracy of observation and diagnostic sagacity ; and he describes some disorders which are not to be met with in any other ancient author. He gives us a very ample and minute detail of the practice which was adopted both by himself and his contemporaries ; and it must be acknowledged that on these points his remarks display a compe- tent knowledge of his subject, united to a clear and comprehensive judgment. He divides diseases into the two great classes of acute and chronic^ nearly corresponding to diseases of constriction and of relaxation, and upon these supposed states he founds his primary indications ; but with respect to the intimate nature of these states of the system, as well as of all hidden or recondite causes generally, he thinks it unnecessary to inquire, provided we can recognise their exist- ence, and can discover the means of removing them. Hence his writings are less theoretical and more decidedly practical than those of any other author of antiquity ; and they consequently contributed more to the advancement of the knowledge and actual treatment of disease than any that had pre- ceded them. The}' contributed in an especial man- ner to perfect the knowledge of therapeutics, by ascertaining with precision the proper indications of cure, with the means best adapted for fulfilling them. The great defect of Caelius Aurelianus (a defect which was inherent in the sect to which he belonged), was that of placing too much dependence upon the twofold division of diseases, and not suf- ficiently attending to the minute shades by which the}' gradually run into each other ; which is the more remarkable in one who shews so much atten- tion to the phaenomena of disease, and who for the most part allows himself to be so little warped by preconceived hypotheses. This view of the subject leads him not unfrequently to reject active and de- cisive remedies, when he could not reconcile iheir operation to his supposed indications ; so that, al- though his practice is seldom what can be styled bad, it is occasionally defective. His work consists of three books On Acute Dis- eases, "Celerum Passionum," (or"DeMorbis Acu- tis,") and five books On Chronic Diseases, " Tar- darum Passionum" (or " De Morbis Chronicis"). The books On Chronic Diseases were first published in folio, Basil. 1529 ; those 0?i Acute Diseases in 8vo. Paris, 1533. The first edition of the whole m work was that published at Lyons in 8vo. 1566; J| perhaps the best is that by Amman, Amstel. 1709j ^ 4to., which was several times reprinted. The last