Aëtius Amidenus

Aëtius Amidenus or Aëtius of Amida (Gr. polytonic|Αέτιος Αμιδηνός) was a Byzantine physician and medical writer, [Citation
last = Greenhill
first = William Alexander
author-link =
contribution = Aetius
editor-last = Smith
editor-first = William
title = Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology
volume = 1
pages = 53
publisher =
place = Boston, MA
year = 1870
contribution-url = http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0062.html ] particularly distinguished by the extent of his erudition. [cite book
last = Dunglison
first = Robley
authorlink = Robley Dunglison
coauthors =
title = History of Medicine from the Earliest Ages to the Commencement of the 19th Century
publisher = Lindsay and Blakiston
date = 1872
location = Philadelphia
pages = 182
url = http://books.google.com/books?id=yDwLsLawimAC&pg=PA183&dq=aetius+medical#PPA182,M1
doi =
id =
isbn = ] Historians are not agreed about his exact date. He is placed by some writers as early as the 4th century; but it is plain from his own work that he did not write till the very end of the 5th or the beginning of the 6th, as he refers not only to Saint Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria, who died 444 AD, ["tetrab." iii. "serm." i. 24, p. 464] but also to Petrus Archiater, who was physician to Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths, ["tetrab." ii. "serm." iii. 110, p. 357] and there­fore must have lived still later. He is himself quoted by Alexander Trallianus, [Alexander of Tralles, xii. 8, p. 346] who lived probably in the middle of the 6th century.

He was a native of Amida, a city of Mesopotamia,Photius, cod. 221] and studied at Alexandria, which was the most famous medical school of the age. He was probably a Christian, which may account perhaps for his being con­founded with another person of the same name, a famous Arian of Antioch, who lived in the time of the Emperor Julian.

In some manuscripts he has the title of "komēs opsikiou" (polytonic|κόμης οψικίου), Latin "comes obsequii", which means the chief officer in attendance on the em­peror. [see Du Cange, "Gloss. Med. et Inf. Latin."] This title, according to Photius, he attained at Constantinople, where he was practicing medicine. Aetius seems to be the first Greek medical writer among the Christians who gives any speci­men of the spells and charms so much in vogue with the Egyptians, such as that of Saint Blaise in removing a bone which sticks in the throat, ["tetrab." ii. "serm." iv. 50, p. 404] and another in re­lation to a fistula. ["tetrab." iv. "serm." m. 14, p. 762]

The division of his work "Sixteen Books on Medicine" (polytonic|Βιβλία Ιατρικά Εκκαίδεκα) into four tetrabibli was not made by himself, but (as Fabricius observes) was the invention of some modern translator, as his way of quoting his own work is according to the numerical series of the books. Although his work does not contain much original matter, and is heavily indebted to Galen and Oribasius, [cite book
last =Withington
first =Edward Theodore
authorlink =
coauthors =
title =Medical History from the Earliest Times: A Popular History of the Healing Art
publisher =Scientific Press
date =1894
location =
pages =130
url =http://books.google.com/books?id=WH7SZO2qpk4C&pg=PA130&dq=aetius+medical#PPA130,M1
doi =
id =
isbn = ] it is nevertheless one of the most valuable medical remains of antiquity, as being a very judicious compilation from the writ­ings of many authors, many from the Alexandrian Library, whose works have been long since lost. [cite journal
last = Lawrence
first = J.J.
authorlink =
coauthors =
title =
journal = The Medical Brief: A Monthly Journal of Scientific Medicine and Surgery
volume = 33
issue =
pages = 166
publisher = Harvard University
location = Boston
date = 1905
url = http://books.google.com/books?id=5RYCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA166&dq=aetius+medical
format =
issn =
accessdate = 2007-11-04 ]

In the manuscript for book 8.13, the word polytonic|άκμή (acme) is written as polytonic|άκνή, the origin of the modern word acne. [cite encyclopedia | last =Kudlien | first =Franz | title =Aetius of Amida | encyclopedia = Dictionary of Scientific Biography | volume = 1 | pages =68-69 | publisher = Charles Scribner's Sons | location = New York | date = 1970 | isbn = 0-684-10114-9]

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