Home page - digilibLT
Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale - Amedeo Avogadro Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Vercelli Regione Piemonte
  • Home
  • The project
  • News
  • Late antiquity on the web
  • Help
  • Contacts and feedback
  • Reserved area
  • DH Day 2021
English language Italian language
Large font size Default font size Small font size
Search

Find



  • Searchable works
  • Advanced search
  • Search the bibliography

Browse and download
  • Works
  • Authors
  • Bibliography
By date
  • II
  • III
  • IV
  • V
  • VI
  • VII
  • VIII
  • Uncertain date
  • All the authors
By name
    • A
    • B
    • C
    • D
    • E
    • F
    • G
    • H
    • I
    • L
    • M
    • N
    • O
    • P
    • Q
    • R
    • S
    • T
    • U
    • V
  • All the authors
Other resources
  • Modern studies on late antiquity
  • Canon of late-antique authors
  • Fonts and software to download
  • Download texts

Additional proponent

External link to the website of the Università degli studi di Torino

Cassius Felix

saec. V


We have only scanty pieces of information about the life of Cassius Felix. Several clues lead us to believe that he was a Roman citizen living in Africa between the fourth and the fifth century AD. Manuscript Parisinus lat. 6114, carrying the text of his treatise De medicina, calls him 'Cirtensis' and dates the work to 447 AD, at the time of the consulship of Ardabur and Calepius (Sabbah). A funerary inscription discovered at  Cirta (CIL VIII 7566) records the death of a Cassius Felix. If the person mentioned in the inscription is indeed an ancestor of the author of the De medicina, the inscription would locate his family of origin in space, confirming the data reported by the Parisinus manuscript. Several elements in the text, both in language and content, strengthen the case for placing the author in an African context: even if Cassius Felix states in his preface his intention to write his work in Latin, he often uses words of Semitic origin, without feeling the need to justify his use of them (Adams), since he thinks they are in common usage (see e.g. 31.1, 32.4, 72.5). He offers detailed comments on the stigmata on the faces of African women (31.1), which suggests direct observation. As for the date, a terminus post quem adds plausibility to the information reported by manuscript Parisinus lat. 6114 in its incipit: Cassius Felix refers three times (32.4, 42.21 and 69) to Vindicianus, physician and proconsul of the Province of Africa between 379 and 382 (Fraisse). An anonymous African hagiographic work,De miraculis sancti Stephani protomarthyris, probably written in the first half of the fifth century AD  (PL XLI, 833-854) mentions a character called 'Felix', chief physician at Carthage; he seems to correspond to Cassius Felix the author of the De medicina. The episode is set in a time that is compatible with the supposed date of the composition of the De medicina. Moreover, the chief physician at Carthage and the author of the De medicina use similar phrases (omnipotenti Domino in PL XLI, 854; omnipotentis dei nutu in the praefatio) to disclose their religious beliefs (Sabbah). Cassius Felix was a learned person, a man of letter well versed in Greek and Latin, and very probably himself a physician. He describes in technical detail some of the operations, which suggests that he was not alien to the medical profession. He seems to suggest as much in his preface, when he says that he has decided to commit his breuiloquium to writing after ‘having practiced’ medicine for a long time.

 

If one gives credit to the hypotheses mentioned so far, one could offer the following summary: Cassius Felix was a physician from Northern Africa, a Christian, a descendant from a family which originated from Cirta. He was a learned man, definitely bilingual; he was born around the mid-fourth century AD; he practices medicine and taught it in his capacity of chief physician at Carthage. In 447, at an advanced age (see the Praefatio), he wrote the work now known under the title De medicina, with the goal of offering to his students a clear and exhaustive medical treatise, with special emphasis on practical usefulness.

Title list
De medicina

Back to list
Bibliography
  1. Adams, J. N. The Regional Diversification of Latin 200 BC - AD 600
  2. André, J. Remarques sur la traduction des mots grecs dans les textes médicaux du Ve siècle (Cassius Félix et Caelius Aurélianus)
  3. Önnerfors, A. Das medizinische Latein von Celsus bis Cassius Felix
  4. Önnerfors, A. Das medizinische Latein von Celsus bis Cassius Felix. Register
  5. Bendz, G. Studien zu Caelius Aurelianus und Cassius Felix
  6. Bernabeo, F. A. - Pontieri, G. M. - Scarano G. B. Elementi di storia della medicina
  7. Debru, A. - Palmieri, N. Docente natura: mélanges de médecine ancienne et médiévale offerts à Guy Sabbah
  8. Fraisse, A. Neologismes et premieres attestations dans le De medicina de Cassius Felix

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  •   »

Creative Commons License This page licensed under Creative Commons Attribution - Non commercial - ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
Release 2.22 - Made by Step srl