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Name of a Roman plebeian family, probably from Caudium (CIL I2 1744 f.) and attested from the time of the 2nd Punic War. The branch of the Libones (S. [I 5-7; II 4-7]) attained the consulship with S. [I 7] and was part of the Roman high nobility in the early Imperial period. The Curiones (S. [I 1-4]), prominent in the 2nd and 1st cents. BC, disappeared with the Republic. I. Republican period [German version] [I 1] S. Curio, C. As aedile in 196 BC, he built the Temple of Faunus on the Tiber Island. Praetor urbanus in 183 and the second plebeian to be elected curio [2] maximus …

[German version] (κρίκωσις; kríkōsis, κρικοῦσθαι; krikoûsthai, infibulare). Placement of a ring (κρίκος; kríkos) or a fibula, minor surgery on the penis described by Celsus (7,25,2) and by Oribasius (50,11). The operation entailed tightening a thread through perforations in the foreskin until it would close no farther. A ring (or fibula) was then attached to prevent exposure of the glans. In some cases at least, it could be removed. Celsus considers the operation to be much more frequently useless than necessary and sees behind it health motives and an attempt t…

[German version] (ἰχώρ; ichṓr). The word has been connected to the Aramaic or Hebrew root meaning ‘dignity’, ‘splendour’, with possible etymological overlap of the Sumerian root meaning ‘blood’ and the Akkadian root meaning ‘to pour’. In Homer (Il. 5,340; cf. 416), the word denotes the lifeblood of the gods as opposed to regular blood that is produced by eating bread and drinking wine. Ichor also appears in Aeschylus (Ag. 1479f., 458 BC), where the word denotes a fluid which is discharged from wounds that will not close. In the 4th cent., it is more common …

[German version] A. Terminology Νόσος/ nósos (Ionic νοῦσος/ noûsos, ‘D’.; etym.: ‘being weakened’) describes disease in an imagery of aggression, which remained in use for a long time [17], as a result of external (divine) or internal origin, which ‘ruled over people and struck them down’ (e.g.: ἱερὰ νόσος; hierà nósos, ‘the sacred disease’, epilepsy). From about the 5th cent. BC, the term was increasingly rivalled by the derivation nósēma [30], perhaps an expression coined by the Sophists; in any case, it rapidly spread through the medical world. It does not hav…

(Ζεῦξις/ Zeûxis). [German version] [1] Greek painter and sculptor, c. 435/25-390 BC Greek painter and sculptor, active between c. 435/25 and 390 BC. He was one of the pioneers of the great era of Greek painting which would retain its high standards for over a century. 'Heraclea', which Plin. HN 35,61 gives as his place of origin, seems more likely to be the Sicilian Heraclea [9] Minoa ([1. 382]; but [2]: Heraclea [7] Pontica?) than Heraclea [10] in Lucania [3. 60], since Z. was the pupil of an otherwise unknown ma…

[German version] I Greek (Παλλάδιος; Palládios). [German version] [I 1] Greek rhetor, 4th cent. Greek rhetor of the first half of the 4th cent. AD (Suda s.v. P. gives his prime as under Constantinus [1] I) from Methone (probably the Messenian one). According to the Suda, in addition to declamations he wrote in all three rhetorical genres ( genera dicendi ) and also an antiquarian work on the festivals of the Romans (FGrH F 837). Whether P. is identical with one of the numerous Palladii mentioned in the letters of Libanius and if …

[German version] Compilation of medical texts written in Latin and attributed in the MSS to an otherwise unknown Plinius Secundus Iunior. Mentioned by Marcellus [8] Empiricus, it is generally accepted to date back to the early 4th cent. AD or even slightly before that. The compilation starts with the author's declaration of his intention to prevent the counterfeiting of medicinal products whose ingredients he then lists together with the relevant composition. The work consists of three books. Bk. 1-2: medicinal preparations, ordered accor…

[German version] [1] Quinctius S. Sammonicus Author of a collection of recipes (also Quintus Serenius). Author of the Liber Medicinalis, a collection of therapeutic recipes which can be neither dated nor identified; Q. has at times been identified with S. [2] Sammonicus or with his son (Septimius [II 6] S. Sammonicus; both died at the beginning of the 3rd cent. AD). The collection (dating between the 2nd and 4th cents. AD) cannot be chronologically ordered with any accuracy. It is written in hexameters and contain…

[German version] Name of the author to whom is ascribed the Liber medicinae ex animalibus from the corpus also containing Ps.-Musa, De herba vettonica, Ps.-Apuleius, Herbarius, the anonymous treatise De taxone and Ps.-Dioscorides, De herbis feminis. As the work borrows from Marcellus' [8] De medicamentis, it would appear to date from the 1st half of the 5th cent. AD. The author, who is sometimes confused with Sextus Platonicus, is unknown and may be historically dubious, especially since text [5. 233-286] and illustrations [6] are atteste…

[German version] (φίλτρον/ phíltron, Latin philtrum; also στέργηθρον/ stérgēthron and θέλκτρον ἔρωτος/ thélktron érōtos; Latin amatorium, pocula desiderii or amoris). Generally a love charm, more often instruments of such a charm (e.g. the tunic of Deianira, Soph. Trach. 584, 1144), usually made from plants, sometimes with mineral and animal substances. Phíltra were used in two ways: 1. The substances were burned in a magical ritual carried out by a professional sorcerer using additional materials (lead plates carrying magical formulae, a statu…

Widespread Italic nomen gentile. I. Republican period [German version] [I 1] V., L. Roman equestrian from Picenum, c. 106-59 BC. In 89 BC, V. probably served on the staff of Cn. Pompeius [I 8] Strabo (ILS 8888; [1. 161 f.]) and subsequently enriched himself as a favourite of L. Cornelius [I 90] Sulla (Sall. Hist. 1,55,17). He later joined the conspiracy of Catilina (Q. Tullius Cic. commentariolum petitionis 10), but betrayed it to Cicero in 63 BC (Cass. Dio. 37,41; Oros. 6,6,7). In 62, it seems that opponents o…

[German version] The term malaria covers a polymorphous complex of feverous diseases whose origin can be traced back to the parasite plasmodium carried by the anopheles mosquito. In antiquity, malaria could be distinguished by some of its symptoms: recurrent attacks of fever, particularly of three and four-day duration, swelling of the spleen (splenomegalia) or black urine. Aetiologially the feverous diseases were related to swampy regions, especially within the framework of climatic medicine. Treatment was symptom-…