Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/679

Rh CELSUS. effort of the constitution to throw off some morbid cause, and that, if not unduly interfered with, the process would terminate in a state of health. We here see the germ of the doctrine of the " vis me- dicatrix Natume," which has had so much influence over the practice of the most enlightened physicians of modem times, and which, although erroneous, has perhaps led to a less hazardous practice than the hypotheses which have been substituted in its room. But perhaps the most curious and interesting parts of the work of Celsus are those which treat of Surgery and surgical operations, of which some account is given in the Diet, of Ant. art. Chirurgia. It is very remarkable that he is almost the first writer who professedly treats on these topics, and yet his descriptions of the diseases and of their treatment prove that the art had attained to a very considerable degree of perfection. Many of what are termed the " capital" operations seem to have been well understood and frequently practised, and it may be safely asserted, that the state of Surgery at the time when Celsus wrote, was com- paratively much more advanced than that of Medicine. The Pharmacy of Celsus forms an- other curious and interesting part of his work, and, like his Surgery, marks a state of considerable improvement in this branch of the art. Many of his formulae are well arranged and efficacious, and, on the whole, they may be said to be more correct and even more scientific than the multifarious corapoimds which were afterwards introduced into practice, and which were not completely discarded until our own times. The style of Celsus has been much admired, and it is in fact equal in purity and elegance to that of the best writers of the Augustan age. This is probably one of the chief reasons of his work having been chosen as a text-book in modem times ; but it would be great injustice to suppose that this is its only merit, or that it con- tains nothing but a judicious and well-arranged abstract of what had been said by his predecessors. Some instances of his lax and inaccurate use of certain anatomical terms are mentioned in the Diet, of Ant. art. Physiologia; but his anatomical and physiological knowledge does not appear to have been at all inferior to that of his contempo- raries. In many passages of his work he follows Hippocrates, especially when treating of the general symptoms and phaenomena of diseases ; and occasionally we meet with sentences literally translated from the Greek. He does not, however, by any means blindly embrace his doctrines, and differs from him occasionally both in theory and practice. The work of Celsus, entitled De Medicina Libri Oeto, has been published very often ; Chou- lant mentions four editions in the fifteenth cen- tury, fifteen in the sixteenth, five in the seven- teenth, thirteen in the eighteenth, and twelve in the first thirty-five years of the nineteenth. The first edition was published at Florence, 1478, small foL, edited by BarthoL Fontius: it is said to be very scarce, and is described by Dibden in his BihUoth. Spencer, i. 303. Perhaps the other editions that best deserve to be noticed are those by Van der Linden, Lugd. Bat. 1657, 12mo. ; Almeloveen, AmsteL 1687, V2mo. (which was several times reprinted) ; Targa, Patav. 1769, 4to. (whose text has been the basis of most Bubeequent editions) ; Lugd. Bat, 1785, 4to. ; CELSUS. 661 Argent. 1 806, 8vo. 2 vols. ; and Milligan, Edinb. 1826, 8vo. The latest edition mentioned by Choulant is that by F. Ritter and H. Albers, Colon, ad Rhen. 1835, 12mo. The work has been translated into English, French, Italian, and Gemian. The English translations appear to be chiefly made for the use of medical students la London who are preparing for their examination at Apothecaries' Hall, and are not very good. A great number of works have been published on Celsus and his writings, which are enumerated by Choulant, but which cannot be mentioned here. Further particulars respecting his medical opinions may be found in Le Clerc's Hist, de la Mid. ; Haller's Diblioth. Medic. Pract. vol. I ; Sprengel's Hist, de la Med. vol. ii. See also Bostock's Hist. of Med., and Choulant's Handbuch der Bucher- kunde filr die Aeltere Medicin, Leipz. 1840, 8vo., from which works the greater part of the preceding account has '■^een taken. [W. A. G.] CELSUS, JU'LIUS, a tribune of the city, cohort, was condemned to death under Tiberius, and broke his own neck in prison by means of the chains with which he was fettered, in order to escape the disgrace of a public execution. (Tac Ann. vi. 9, 14.) CELSUS, JU'LIUS, a scholar at Constanti- nople in the seventh century after Christ, who made a recension of the text of Caesar's Commen- taries, whence we find subjoined to many MSS. of Caesar, Julius Celsus Vir Clarissimus et Cotnes recensui, or Julius Celsus Constantinus V. C. hyi. Many modem writers, indeed, have maintained that Celsus was the author of these commentaries, and still more have attributed to him the works on the Spanish and African wars ; but the former supposition is ridiculous, and the latter desti- tute of proof. Julius Celsus has been usually regarded as the author of the life of Caesar, which has been frequently printed with the editions of Caesar's Commentaries under the title of Julii Celsi Commentarii de Vita Caesaris ; but this work has been proved by C. E. Ch. Schneider {Petrar- cliae, Historia Julii Caesaris, Lips. 1827) to be a work of Petrarch's. There is a dissertation on Julius Celsus by Dodwell, appended to hia Annates Q^inctilianet et Statiani, Oxon. 1698. CELSUS, JUVE'NTIUS, a Roman jurist, who flourished, as Majansius and Heineccius have clearly shewn, in the second half of the first cen- tury of the Christian aera. He succeeded Pegasus, the follower of Proculus, and was himself succeeded by Celsus, the son, and Neratius Priscus. (Dig. 1. tit. 2. s. 2. § 47.) He belonged (at least on one occasion) to the consilium of the consul Du- cenus Verus, who was probably a consul suffectus, and is nowhere named except in Dig. 31. s. 29. The numerous attempts of learned men to identify Ducenus with recorded consuls are without ground, and most of their conjectures refer to too late a period, unless Celsus the father attained to an un- usual age. Thus Wieling {Jtcrispntdentia Resti- tuta, p. 351) and Guil. Grotius {De Viiis Jurisp. ii. c. 2. § 2) make Ducenus the same as L.Cejoniua Commodus Verus, who was consul a. d. 106. Others are for L. Annius Venis, consul a. d. 121. Ant. Augustinus {De Nominibtts Propriis Pandeo- tarum, c. 3, p. 259, n. [g.]) seems to think he might have been the Juventius Verus, who was consul for the third time a. d. 134. Heineccius {Hist. Jut. Civ. § 241, n.) is for Decennius Gemi-