Pliny the Younger & Pliny the Elder · a new plain-English translation from the Latin
1| The face of mankind has also felt new diseases, unknown in every earlier age, and not to Italy alone but to nearly the entire continent of Europe; even then they did not spread to any great extent through the whole of Italy, nor through Illyricum, the Gauls or the Spains, nor anywhere other than at Rome and around it. They came without pain, it is true, and without danger to life, but with such hideousness that any death would have been preferable.
2| The most serious of them they called lichenes, by a Greek name; in Latin, because it generally began at the chin, it was called mentagra, at first in playful jest, so impudent is the nature of many people in the misfortunes of others, and soon as an accepted word. In many cases it spread widely over the whole face, sparing only the eyes, and it descended to the neck, chest and hands with a foul scurf of the skin.
3| This plague had not existed among our ancestors and fathers. It first crept into Italy in the middle of the principate of Tiberius Claudius Caesar, when a certain Roman knight from Perusia, a quaestor's clerk, brought the contagion of it home from Asia, where he had been serving as an attendant. Nor did women feel this ill, or slaves, or the common people of low or middle rank, but the nobles, chiefly through the quick passing of a kiss; and in many who had borne the treatment the scar was fouler than the disease. For it was treated with caustics, and unless the body was burned right down to the bones, the loathsome thing broke out again.
4| And there came from Egypt, the mother of such ailments, physicians who devoted themselves to this work alone, to their great profit, since it is certain that Manilius Cornutus, a man of praetorian rank and legate of the province of Aquitania, contracted to pay CC sesterces to be cured of that disease. It has also happened rather often, on the other hand, that new kinds of disease have been felt in droves. What more wonderful thing can be found? That certain ailments arise suddenly in a particular part of the world, and attack particular members of men, or particular ages, or even particular fortunes, as though the evil chose: these rage among children, those among adults; these the nobles feel, those the poor!
5| It is recorded in the annals that in the censorship of Lucius Paullus and Quintus Marcius carbuncle first occurred in Italy, a disease peculiar to the province of Narbonensis. Of it two men of consular rank died in the very year in which we were writing this, Julius Rufus and Laecanius Bassus, the former cut open through the ignorance of his physicians, the latter after he had himself pulled it out with a needle from the thumb of his left hand, though it was so small that it could hardly be seen.
6| It arises in the most hidden parts of the body, and mostly under the tongue: a red hardness like a pimple, but blackish at the head, in other cases livid, stretching into the body without swelling, without pain, without itching, with no sign other than sleep; overcome by this, people are carried off within three days. Sometimes it also brings shivering, and small pustules around it, more rarely fever; once it has invaded the stomach and throat, it kills very swiftly.
7| We have said that elephantiasis did not occur in Italy before the age of Pompey the Great, and that it too generally begins at the face, first in the nostril, like a little lentil, then spreading through the whole body, spotted with various colours and with uneven skin, thick in some places and thin in others, hard, and rough elsewhere as if with scab, and at last turning black and pressing the flesh against the bones, while the fingers and toes swell.
8| This disease is peculiar to Egypt, and when it fell upon the kings it was deadly for their peoples, since the tubs in the baths were tempered with human blood as a treatment for it. And this disease was quickly stamped out in Italy, as was the one the ancients called gemursa, which arose between the toes; even its name has been forgotten.
9| This in itself is remarkable, that some diseases die out among us while others persist, such as colum. That disease crept in under the principate of Tiberius Caesar, and no one felt it before the emperor himself, to the great bewilderment of the citizens when they read, in the edict in which he excused himself on grounds of health, a name unknown to them. What are we to say this is, or what anger of the gods? Were the established kinds of disease too few for man, when they numbered more than three hundred, unless new ones were also to be feared? Nor, for that matter, do men bring fewer upon themselves by their own doings.
10| These remedies that we are recording were those of the ancients, nature herself in a way making the medicine, and so they remained for a long time. Certainly we find the volumes of Hippocrates, who was the first to set down the precepts of healing, and most brilliantly, full of mention of herbs; no less those of Diocles of Carystus, who came second in time and fame; likewise those of Praxagoras and Chrysippus, and then of Erasistratus of Ceos;
11| with Herophilus, indeed, although he was the founder of a subtler school, this method was celebrated above all others. But by then, little by little, it was sinking into words and chatter, although practice is the most effective teacher of all things, and of medicine above all. For it was pleasanter to sit in the schools, busy listening, than to go through wildernesses and search for different herbs at different seasons of the year.
12| Yet antiquity held firm and kept its claim to the great remnants of an acknowledged practice, until Asclepiades, in the age of Pompey the Great, a teacher of rhetoric who was not making enough money from that art, though his shrewd talents fitted him for things other than the forum, suddenly turned to this. And, as was inevitable for a man who had neither practised it nor knew remedies that must be learned by eye and by use, he charmed everyone with torrents of eloquence prepared every day, renounced everything, and, by reducing the whole of medicine to causes, made it a matter of conjecture,
13| having professed five things above all as common aids: abstinence from food, at other times from wine, rubbing of the body, walking, and being carried about—things which each man understood he could provide for himself—and with everyone favoring him, so that what was easiest might be true, he swung almost the whole human race round to himself, no differently than if he had come down from heaven.
14| Besides this, he drew minds along by an empty artifice: now promising wine to the sick and giving it at the right moment, now cold water—and since Herophilus had earlier undertaken to examine the causes of diseases, and Cleophantus among the ancients had made clear the reckoning of wine, he himself preferred to take his surname from the giving of cold water, as Marcus Varro states. He devised other blandishments too, now hanging up little beds whose rocking would either lessen diseases or entice sleep, now introducing baths, to the keenest craving of mankind, and many other things pleasant and agreeable to tell, with great authority and no less fame,
15| when he had met an unknown funeral, and brought the man back from the pyre and saved him, lest anyone suppose so great a change was made by trifling influences. This alone we can resent: that one man, from a most frivolous people, starting without any resources, for the sake of his own income suddenly gave laws of health to the human race, which however many have since repealed.
16| Asclepiades was helped by much in the treatment of the ancients that was over-anxious and crude, such as burying the sick in clothing and bringing on sweats by every means, now roasting bodies at fires, or seeking the sun continually in a rainy city, indeed in all Italy, which brings rain, and the use of hanging baths, then new, which flattered without limit.
17| Besides this, in certain diseases he took away the torments of treatment, as in quinsies, which they treated by lowering an instrument into the throat. He condemned, rightly, the vomitings then frequent beyond measure. He also found fault with drinks of drugs that are hostile to the stomach, which is largely true. And so we take care above all to note which things are useful to the stomach.
18| Above all else he was helped by the vanities of the Magi, carried so far that they could destroy all faith in herbs: that by the herb aethiopis rivers and pools are dried up; that by the touch of onothuris all closed things are opened; that achaemenis, thrown into the enemy line, makes the ranks tremble and turn their backs; that latax was customarily given by the king of the Persians to ambassadors so that wherever they came they would abound in supplies of all things; and many similar claims.
19| Where indeed were these when the Cimbri and Teutones howled in terrible war, or when Lucullus laid low so many kings of the Magi with a few legions? Why did Roman generals always take first thought for supplies in their wars? Why did Caesar's soldier at Pharsalus feel hunger, if all abundance could come through the good fortune of a single herb? Would it not have been better for Aemilianus Scipio to open the gates of Carthage with a herb than to shake the barriers with engines for so many years? Let the Pomptine marshes be dried today by the herb meroïs, and so much land be restored to Italy at the city's doors! As for the preparation of a drug found in the same Democritus, by which handsome, good and fortunate children are begotten, to what king of the Persians did he ever give such a thing?
20| It would indeed be a marvel that the credulity of the ancients, arising from the most wholesome beginnings, was carried this far, if human minds had known measure in anything, and if we were not going to show, in its place, that this very medicine, invented by Asclepiades, was carried beyond even the Magi. This is the condition of minds in every matter: that everything, starting from necessities, comes in the end to excess. Therefore, of the herbs described in the previous book, we shall give the remaining effects, adding others as the plan dictates.
21| But for remedies for lichen, and so foul an ailment, we shall pile up more from every side, although not a few have already been shown. Plantago pounded, then, treats it; so does quinquefolium; the root of albucus in vinegar; the stalks of the fig tree boiled in vinegar; the root of hibiscus boiled down to a quarter with glue and sharp vinegar. They also rub with pumice, so that the root of rumex, pounded with vinegar, may be smeared on.
22| The flower of mistletoe worked with lime is also praised, and tithymallus boiled with resin. But the herb lichen is preferred to all of these, the name having been found from that. It grows on rocks, with a single broad leaf at the root, a single small stalk, and long leaves hanging down. This also removes brands. It is pounded with honey. There is another kind of lichen, clinging wholly to rocks like moss, and this too is applied. It also stops blood from wounds when dropped in, and gatherings when smeared on. It also cures jaundice with honey, smeared on the mouth and tongue. Those so treated are told to wash in salt water, to be anointed with almond oil, and to abstain from garden vegetables. For lichens they also use the root of thapsia, pounded with honey.
23| Quinsy is treated by argemonia taken in wine; by hyssop boiled with a fig and gargled; by peucedanum with the rennet of a sea calf in equal parts; by proserpinaca pounded with brine from maenae and oil, or held under the tongue; likewise the juice of quinquefolium drunk in doses of 3 cyathi. This also treats all defects of the throat when gargled; verbascum is especially for the tonsils, drunk in water,
24| for scrofula plantago, chelidonia with honey and axle-grease, quinquefolium, the root of persollata, likewise covered with its own leaf and applied with axle-grease, likewise artemisia, and the root of mandragora in water. Sideritis latifolia is dug around with a nail by the left hand and tied on; those cured must be watched, lest the plant be sown again [….] by the wickedness of the herbalists, as we said in certain cases, and the disease break out again; I find this predicted also for those whom artemisia has cured, and likewise for those whom plantago has.
25| Damasonium, which is also called alcima, gathered around the solstice, is applied with rainwater, the leaf pounded or the root crushed with axle-grease, in such a way that it is covered by its own leaf when applied. Thus also for all pains and swellings of the neck, in whatever part.
26| — Bellis grows in meadows, with a white flower, somewhat reddening. They report that applied with artemisia it is more effective.— Condurdum also, a herb of the solstice, with a red flower, is said, hung on the neck, to suppress scrofula, and likewise verbenaca with plantago.—For all defects of the fingers, and especially hangnails, quinquefolium is the remedy.
27| Among defects of the chest, cough is the very gravest. For this the cure is the root of panaces taken in sweet wine; the juice of hyoscyamus even for those spitting blood; the fumes too of it burned, for those who cough; likewise scordotis mixed with cress and resin, pounded dry with honey—it makes expectoration easy even by itself—; likewise the greater centaurium, even for those throwing up blood, a complaint that the juice of plantago also treats, and Vettonica in doses of 3 obols in water;
28| against purulent and against bloody expectorations the root of persollata, a drachma by weight with 11 pine kernels; the juice of peucedanum. Acorus helps pains of the chest; the same is mixed in antidotes; for cough, daucum, and likewise the Scythian herb, the same for all defects of the chest; for cough and for those spitting pus, 3 obols in as many of raisin wine, verbascum, whose flower is golden.
29| This has such power that even beasts of burden are helped by a drink of it, not only when coughing but also when drawing their flanks in labored breathing, which I find reported also of Gentiana. The root of cacalia, chewed and soaked in wine, is of use not only for cough but also for the throat. 5 sprigs of hyssop with 2 of rue and 3 figs, boiled, clear the chest and quiet cough.
30| Bechion is called tussilago. It has two kinds. Where the wild kind grows, they believe there are waters beneath, and water-finders take this as a sign. The leaves are somewhat larger than ivy, 5 or 7 of them, whitish from the ground, pale above, without stalk, without flower, without seed, with a thin root. Some think it is the same as arcion, and by another name chamaeleuce. The smoke of this when dry, with its root, drawn in through a reed and swallowed, is said to cure an old cough, but at each draught raisin wine must be tasted.
31| The other is called by some salvia, and is like verbascum. It is ground, strained, and warmed, and so drunk for cough and pains of the side; the same is effective against scorpions and sea dragons. Against serpents too it helps to be anointed with it in oil.—A bundle of hyssop is boiled with a quadrans of honey for cough and for pains of the side and chest; verbascum with rue in water; meal of Vettonica is drunk in hot water.
32| Scordotis strengthens the stomach, as does its juice; so do centaurium and Gentiana drunk in water; plantago, taken either by itself in food or with lentil or a gruel of spelt. Vettonica, otherwise heavy on the stomach, nevertheless heals its defects, drunk or chewed in the leaves; likewise aristolochia drunk; agaricum chewed dry, so that unmixed wine is sipped at intervals; nymphaea Heraclia applied; the juice of peucedanum. Psyllion is applied to burnings, or cotyledon pounded with barley meal, or aizoum.
33| Molon has a grooved stalk, soft leaves, small, and a root of 4 fingers, at whose end is a head like garlic. It is called by some syron. In wine, for the stomach [….]. Shortness of breath is treated by the greater centaurium as an electuary, by plantago in juice or food, by a pound by weight of pounded Vettonica with half an ounce of Attic honey in hot water, drunk daily; by aristolochia or agaricum in doses of three obols each, drunk in hot water or in ass's milk,
34| cissanthemos is drunk for orthopnoea, likewise hyssop also for asthmatics, and the juice of peucedanum for pains of the liver, chest and side, if there is no fever. Agaricum also helps those who spit blood, ground to the weight of a victoriatus and given in 5 cyathi of honey wine. Amomum does the same.
35| For the liver in particular Teucria is drunk fresh in doses of 4 drachmas in a hemina of posca; 1 drachma of Vettonica in 3 cyathi of hot water; for defects of the heart in 2 cyathi of cold. The juice of quinquefolium is for defects of the liver and lungs and for those throwing up blood and for any defect where blood appears within. Anagallides are wonderfully beneficial for the liver. Those who eat the herb capnos pass bile through the urine. Acorus treats the liver; daucum the chest and the midriff.
36| Ephedra, called by others anabasis, grows in generally windy ground, climbing a tree and hanging from the branches, with no leaf but many tendrils, which are like jointed rushes, with a pale root. It is given ground in dark, dry wine for cough, gasping and colic, and made into a gruel, to which it is suitable to add wine. Likewise Gentiana, soaked and ground the day before, a denarius by weight in 3 cyathi of wine.
37| Gaeum has thin little roots, black and sweet-smelling. It treats not only pains of the chest or side, but also dispels indigestion by its pleasant taste. Verbenaca, however, treats all the internal organs: the sides, lungs, liver, chest;
38| but particularly the lungs, and those whom consumption from them attacks, the root of the herb consiligo, which we said was recently discovered. For pigs and for all cattle it is a ready remedy for a defect of the lungs, even if only passed through the ear. It ought to be drunk in water and held continually in the mouth under the tongue. Whether the upper part of this herb is of any use is so far uncertain. For the kidneys the food of plantago is beneficial, a drink of Vettonica, and agaricum drunk as for cough.
39| Tripolion grows on rocks by the sea, where the wave plays, neither in the sea nor on dry land, with a leaf thicker than isatis, a stalk a palm high, divided at the tip, and a white root, fragrant, thick, of a hot taste. It is given to sufferers of the liver, cooked in spelt. This herb seems to some the same as polium, of which we spoke in its place.
40| Gromphaena, with leaves alternately green and rosy along the stalk, in posca treats those who bring up blood. For the liver there is the herb malundrum, which grows in grain fields and meadows, with a white flower, fragrant. Its little stalk is ground in old wine. Likewise the herb calcetum, ground from grape skins, is applied. The root of Vettonica produces easy vomiting, in the manner of hellebore, 4 drachmas in raisin wine or honey wine; hyssop pounded with honey, more usefully if cress or irio has been taken beforehand; molemonium, a denarius by weight. And the milky juice of sillybum, which thickens into gum, is taken with honey in the weight stated above and draws bile especially.
41| Conversely, wild cumin and meal of Vettonica stop vomiting; they are taken in water. Daucum, meal of Vettonica in honeyed water, and plantago boiled in the manner of cabbage stalks wipe away disgust and disperse indigestion.—Hemionium quiets hiccups, and so does aristolochia; clymenus, gasping.—For those with pleurisy and inflammation of the lung the greater centaurium is drunk, and hyssop likewise; for pleurisy, the juice of peucedanum.
42| Alus, as the Gauls call it, and the Veneti cotonea, treats the side, and also the kidneys, and sprains and ruptures. It is like cunila bubula, with tops like thyme, sweet and quenching thirst, the root white in some places, black in others. Chamaerops has the same effects in pains of the side, with myrtle-like leaves around its twin stalks and heads of a Greekish rose, drunk in wine.—Sciatic pains and those of the spine are relieved by agaricum drunk as for cough, and likewise by meal of stoechas or Vettonica in honeyed water.
43| The belly, however, gives man the most trouble, and it is on its account that the greater part of mortals live. For at times it does not pass on food, at times does not retain it, at times does not take it, at times does not digest it, and habits have come to such a pass that man perishes chiefly by food. This worst vessel of the body presses like a creditor and calls on us more than once a day. For its sake avarice above all strives, for it luxury lays in stores, for it men sail to the Phasis, for it the shallows of the deep are searched; and no one weighs its worthlessness against the foulness of its outcome. Therefore the works of medicine around it are the most numerous.
44| It is checked by scordotis, fresh, a drachma pounded with wine, or boiled, as a drink; by Polemonia, which is also given to those with dysentery in wine; by the root of verbascum, the size of 2 fingers, drunk in water; by the seed of nymphaea Heraclia drunk with wine; by the upper root of xiphion, a drachma by weight in vinegar; by the seed of plantago pounded in wine, or the plant itself boiled in vinegar, or spelt groats taken in its juice, likewise cooked with lentil, or its dried meal sprinkled into a drink with poppy, roasted and pounded, or the juice poured in or drunk; by Vettonica in wine heated with iron. The same is given in dry wine to sufferers from coeliac disease; for these hiberis is also applied, as was said.
45| —For tenesmus the root of nymphaea Heraclia is drunk in wine, psyllium in water, and a decoction of the root of acorus. The juice of aizoum checks the bowels and dysentery and drives out round tapeworms. The root of symphytum drunk in wine checks the bowels and dysentery, as does that of daucum. Aizoum, with the leaves crushed in wine, resists colic; the meal of dried alcima, drunk with wine, resists colic.
46| Astragalus has long leaves, with many slanting cuts, around the root III or III stalks, full of leaves, a flower of the hyacinth, roots shaggy, tangled, red and very hard. It grows in rocky places, sunny and likewise snowy, as at Pheneus in Arcadia. Its power is to thicken the tissues. The root drunk in wine checks the bowels, and as a result it moves urine, the liquid being driven back, as do most things that check the bowels. Crushed in red wine it cures those with dysentery; but it is hard to pound. The same is most useful as a fomentation for suppuration of the gums. It is gathered at the end of autumn, when it has lost its leaves; it is dried in the shade.
47| The bowels are checked also by either kind of ladanum—the one that grows in grain fields, crushed and sifted. It is drunk in honeyed water, or the noble kind in wine. The herb is called ledon, from which it is made in Cyprus, clinging to the beards of goats. A nobler kind is made in Arabia, and now also in Syria and Africa, what they call toxicum; for they draw out the strings wrapped about a bow with wools, the dewy down clinging to them. We have said more about it among the unguents. This is the heaviest in smell and the hardest to the touch.
48| For it gathers a great deal of earth, though it is best approved when most pure, fragrant, soft, green and resinous. Its nature is to soften, to dry, to digest, to entice sleep. It checks falling hair and preserves blackness, is poured into the ears with hydromel or rose oil, cures scurf of the skin and weeping sores with salt added, an old cough when taken with styrax, and is most effective for belching.
49| Chondris, or pseudodictamnum, also checks the bowels. —Hypocisthis, called by some orobethron, grows like an unripe pomegranate, as we said, under the cistus, whence the name. Dried in the shade it checks the bowels; both kinds, in dark dry wine. For it has two kinds, the white and the red. The use is in the juice: it thickens and dries. And the red is better for rheums of the stomach, drunk in doses of 3 obols; for bloody expectorations with starch; for dysentery, drunk and injected; likewise verbenaca, given in water, or, to those without fever, in Aminean wine, 5 spoonfuls being added to 3 cyathi of wine.
50| Laver also, growing in streams, preserved and cooked, treats colic; potamogiton, however, in wine, treats even dysentery and coeliac disease. It is like beet in its leaves, only smaller and hairier, always rising a little above the water. The use is in the leaves: they cool and thicken, are especially useful for diseased legs, and against the spreading of ulcers with honey or vinegar.
51| Castor knew this plant otherwise, as growing in watery places with a thin leaf like horse bristles and a long, smooth thyrsus. With the root he cured scrofula and hardnesses. Potamogiton is hostile to crocodiles; therefore those who hunt them carry it with them. Achillea also checks the bowels. Statice gives the same effects, holding up on 7 stalks something like the heads of roses.
52| Ceratia, with one leaf and a knotty, large root, treats coeliac and dysenteric sufferers when taken in food. Leontopodion is called by some leuceoron, by others doripetron, by others thorybethron; its root checks the bowels and purges bile, in honeyed water, with a weight of 2 denarii added. It grows on level and meager soil. Its seed, drunk, is said to bring frenzied dreams. Lagopus checks the bowels drunk in wine, or in fever in water.
53| The same is tied on the groin in a swelling. It grows in grain fields. Many above all others praise, for dysentery cases given up as hopeless, quinquefolium, the roots boiled in milk and drunk, and aristolochia, a victoriatus by weight in 3 cyathi of wine. Of the remedies named above, those that are taken hot will be better tempered with a glowing iron.
54| On the other side, the juice of the lesser centaurium purges the bowels, a drachma in a hemina of water with a small amount of salt and vinegar, and draws off bile; with the greater, colic is dispersed. Vettonica loosens the bowels in doses of 4 drachmas in 9 cyathi of hydromel; so does Euphorbeum or agaricum, 2 drachmas drunk with a little salt in water, or 3 obols in honey wine. Cyclaminos also loosens, drunk in water or applied as suppositories; so does a suppository of chamaecissus. A handful of hyssop boiled down to a third with salt draws phlegm, or pounded with oxymel and salt drives out the creatures of the belly. The root of peucedanum draws off phlegm and bile.
55| Anagallides purge the bowels in honeyed water, as does epithymum, which is the flower of a thyme like savory. The difference is that this one is green, while the other thyme is white; some call it hippopheon. Less useful to the stomach, it provokes vomiting, but disperses colic and flatulence. It is also taken as an electuary for defects of the chest with honey and sometimes iris.
56| It loosens the bowels in doses from 4 drachmas to 6 with honey and a small amount of salt and vinegar. Some hand down otherwise: that epithymum grows without a root, slender, like a little cloak, reddish, is dried in the shade, drunk in water in half an acetabulum, and draws off phlegm and bile with the bowels gently loosened.
57| Nymphaea in dry wine also loosens, and so does pycnocomon, with leaves thicker and sharper than eruca, a round root, yellow in color, smelling of earth, a four-angled stalk, moderate and slender, and the flower of basil. It is found in stony places. Its root, in honeyed water, in a weight of 2 denarii, empties both the bowels and bile and phlegm; the seed, a single drachma drunk in wine, causes tumultuous dreams. And stumpy capnos draws off bile.
58| Polypodion, which our people call felicula, is like fern; the root is what is used, hairy, of a green color inside, the thickness of the little finger, pitted with cups like the tentacles of the polypus, faintly sweet, growing on rocks or under old trees. The juice is pressed from it after soaking in water, and the root itself, cut small, is sprinkled over greens or beet or mallow or salted fish, or cooked with porridge to loosen the belly gently, or in fever. It draws off bile and phlegm and offends the stomach. Its dried meal put into the nostrils consumes a polypus. It bears neither flower nor seed.
59| Scamonium also draws off bile by dissolving the stomach, and loosens the bowels, except if 2 drachmas of aloe are added to 2 obols of it. It is the juice of a herb branching from the root, with fat leaves, triangular, white, a thick root, moist, nauseating. It grows in rich and white soil.
60| The root is hollowed around the rising of the Dog Star so that the juice flows together into it, and this, dried in the sun, is made into lozenges. The root itself, or its bark, is also dried. The Colophonian is praised by origin, the Mysian, the Prienean, and by appearance, bright and as like as possible to bull's glue, spongy with the finest pipes, quickly melting, smelling of rank odor, gummy, turning milky at the touch of the tongue, very smooth, whitening when diluted. This also happens with the adulterated sort, which is made from meal of ervum and the juice of sea tithymallus, chiefly in Judaea,
61| which even chokes when taken. It is detected by taste, for tithymallus heats the tongue. It is used at two years old; neither before nor after is it useful. They have given it also by itself in water or honey wine with salt, four obols each, but most usefully with aloe, so that honey wine is drunk when the purging begins. A decoction of the root is also made in vinegar to the thickness of honey, with which leprosies are smeared and the head is anointed in pain, with oil.
62| Our people call tithymallus the milk herb, others goat's lettuce, and they tell that if a body is written on with its milk, and ashes are sprinkled when it has dried, letters appear, and so some have preferred to address adulteresses in this way rather than by tablets. It has many kinds. The first is named characias, which is also thought to be the male, with branches the thickness of a finger, red, juicy, 5 or 6 in number, a cubit in length, with leaves from the root almost like the olive and at the tops a crest like a rush.
63| It grows in rough places by the sea. The seed is gathered in autumn with the crest, dried in the sun, pounded and stored. The juice, however, is taken when the down of the fruits is beginning, by breaking the branches, onto meal of ervum or onto figs, so that it dries with them. It is enough to take five drops on each,
64| and they report that dropsy patients are purged as many times as the number of drops of milk the fig has taken up, once eaten. When the juice is collected, care must be taken that it not touch the eyes. It is also made from the leaves pounded, less effective than the former. A decoction is also made from the branches. The seed too is used, boiled down with honey into pills for loosening the bowels. The seed is also enclosed in wax in the hollows of teeth. The mouth is rinsed with a root decoction in wine or oil. They also smear the juice on lichens and drink it, so that it purges by vomiting and by loosening the bowels, though otherwise useless to the stomach.
65| It draws phlegm with salt added in the drink, and bile with aphronitrum, if one wishes to be purged by the bowels, in posca, if by vomiting, in raisin wine or honeyed water. The middle dose is given at 3 obols. It is better to have taken figs after food. It burns the throat mildly; for it is of so fiery a nature that applied by itself to the outside of the body it raises blisters like fire and is used as a caustic.
66| — They call another kind of tithymallus myrtites, others caryites, with leaves of myrtle, sharp and pricking, but larger, itself also growing in rough ground. Its crests are gathered when barley is swelling and dried in the shade for 9 days; in the sun they wither. The fruit does not ripen evenly, but part in the following year, and it is called a nut. From this the Greeks gave the surname.
67| It is cut with the ripening of the harvests and washed, then dried and given with 2 parts of black poppy, so that the whole is the measure of an acetabulum. This one is less emetic than the former, as are the others. Some have given the leaf of it too in this way, but the nut itself in honey wine or raisin wine or sesame. It draws phlegm and bile through the bowels and heals sores of the mouth,
68| for spreading sores in the mouth, the leaf is taken with honey.— The third kind of tithymallus is called paralios or tithymallis, with a round leaf, a stalk a palm high, reddish branches, and a white seed, which is gathered when the grape begins, and when dried is ground and taken by the measure of an acetabulum for purgings.— The fourth kind they call helioscopion,
69| with the leaves of purslane, little branches standing from the root 4 or 5 in number, reddish, half a foot high, full of juice. This grows around towns, with white seed, most welcome to doves. It took its name because it turns its heads round with the sun. It draws bile downward in oxymel, half an acetabulum. Its other uses are those of characias.
70| — The fifth they call cyparissias on account of the likeness of its leaves, with a stalk double or triple, growing in level country. It has the same power as helioscopion or characias.— The sixth they call platyphyllos, others corymbites, others amygdalites from the likeness. No plant has broader leaves. It kills fish. It loosens the bowels by the root or the leaves or the juice in honey wine or honeyed water, 4 drachmas. It particularly draws off watery humors.
71| — The seventh they name dendroides, others cobion, others leptophyllos, growing on rocks, the most leafy-crested of all, with very large reddish stalks and the most abundant in seed, of the same effect as characias.
72| Apios ischas, or raphanos agria, spreads 2 or 3 reddish rushes over the ground, with leaves of rue. The root is that of an onion, but larger, wherefore some call it wild radish. Within it has a white nipple-like core, outside black rinds. It grows on rough, mountainous ground, sometimes also in grassy.
73| It is dug up in spring, and crushed and plunged into an earthen vessel, and the scum that floats having been removed, the remaining juice purges in both directions, a sesquiobolus in honeyed water. Thus the measure of an acetabulum is also given to dropsy patients. The meal of the dried root is also sprinkled into a drink. They say the upper part of it draws off bile by vomiting, the lower through the bowels in water.
74| Colic is dispersed by panaces of any kind, by Vettonica except where it comes from indigestion, by the juice of peucedanum, which also relieves flatulence, producing belching; by the root of acorus, by daucum, even if taken like lettuce. Cyprian ladanum, drunk, meets defects of the intestines; meal of Gentiana in tepid water, the size of a bean; plantago taken in the morning, 2 spoonfuls with a third part of poppy in 4 cyathi of wine, not old. It is given also to those going to sleep, with soda or barley meal added, if given long after a meal. A hemina of the juice is poured in for the colon, or in fever.
75| Agaricum, drunk in doses of 3 obols in one cyathus of old wine, treats the spleen; the root of panaces of every kind in honey wine; but Teucria above all, drunk dried and boiled, as much as a hand can hold, in 3 heminae of vinegar down to one hemina. The same is applied in vinegar or, if that cannot be borne, in fig or water. Polemonia is drunk in wine, Vettonica a drachma in 3 cyathi of oxymel, aristolochia as against serpents.
76| Argemonia, taken in food for 7 days, is said to consume the spleen; agaricum, 2 obols in vinegar with honey. The root of nymphaea Heraclia drunk in wine itself consumes it. Cissanthemus, a drachma taken twice a day in 2 cyathi of white wine for 40 days, is said to release the spleen little by little through the urine. Hyssop boiled with a fig is also beneficial, the root of lonchitis boiled before it lets its seed fall, and also the root of peucedanum, for both spleen and kidneys.
77| The spleen is consumed by the juice of acorus drunk; the roots are most useful for the midriff and the flanks; [….] the seed of clymenus, drunk for 30 days, a denarius by weight in white wine; meal of Vettonica drunk with honey and squill vinegar; the root of lonchitis in water. Teucrium is applied, likewise scordium with wax, agaricum with fenugreek meal.
78| For bad ailments of the bladder, and against stones, the gravest of torments, as we said, help is given by Polemonia drunk in wine, likewise agaricum; plantago, the leaves or the root drunk in raisin wine; Vettonica as we said under the liver; also drunk and applied for rupture, and the same is most effective for strangury. Some advise, for stones, drinking Vettonica and verbenaca and milifolium in equal portions in water as a unique remedy.
79| It is certain that strangury is also dispersed by dictamnus, and by quinquefolium boiled down to a third in wine. This is also most useful given and applied to those with intestinal rupture. The upper root of xiphion also moves urine, and is given in water to infants with rupture and applied. For defects of the bladder, the juice of peucedanum; for rupture in infants and protruding navels, psyllion is applied.
80| Anagallides move urine; a decoction of the root of acorus, or the root itself ground and drunk, also drives out all defects of the bladder; the herb and the root of cotyledon drive out stones, and likewise all inflammation of the genitals, in equal weights of the stalk and the seed and myrrh.
81| Ebulum pounded with its leaves while tender and drunk in wine drives out stones, and applied heals the testicles. Erigeron too, with meal of frankincense and sweet wine, cures inflammations of the testicles. The root of symphytum, applied, restrains intestinal ruptures; white hypocisthis restrains spreading sores of the genitals. Artemisia is also given against stones in sweet wine and for strangury; the root of nymphaea Heraclia in wine quiets pains of the bladder.
82| The same power belongs to crethmus, very much praised by Hippocrates. It is among those wild herbs that are eaten; this at any rate the rustic Hecale sets out in Callimachus. Its appearance is that of a tall garden herb. The stalk is single, a palm high; the seed is hot, fragrant like that of libanotis, round; when dried it splits. Inside it has a white kernel, which some call cachrys. The leaves are fat and whiten like the olive, thicker, and salty to the taste; the roots are the thickness of a finger, 3 or 4.
83| It grows in rocky places by the sea. It is eaten raw or cooked with vegetables, of fragrant and pleasant flavor. It is also preserved in brine. Its use is chiefly for strangury, the leaf or stalk or root in wine. It also makes the color of the body more pleasing, but too much of it brings flatulence. It loosens the bowels as a decoction, and draws urine and moisture from the kidneys, as does the meal of dried alcima, drunk in wine, more effectively for strangury with daucum added; it is useful for the spleen too. It is drunk against serpents. For beasts of burden also, sprinkled on barley, it helps in phlegm or strangury.
84| Anthyllion is very like the lentil, and drunk in wine frees the bladder from its defects and stops blood. The other, anthyllis, like chamaepitys, with a purple flower, heavy smell, and the root of endive, treats even more [….]. Cepaea, like purslane, with a darker root, but a useless one, growing on sandy shores, bitter to the taste, is of the greatest benefit to the bladder in wine with the root of asparagus.
85| Hypericon provides the same—some call it chamaepitys, others corissum—a vegetable-like shrub, slender, a cubit high, reddish, with the leaf of rue, a sharp smell, and a black seed in a pod, ripening with the barley. The nature of the seed is to thicken. It checks the bowels, moves urine, and is drunk with wine for the bladder.
86| There is another hypericon, which some call caron, with the leaf of tamarisk—and it grows under it—but with fatter leaves and tiny, reddish, fragrant, over a palm high, sweet, gently sharp. The seed has a heating power, and for that reason causes inflammation, but is not useless for the stomach, and is outstanding for strangury, if the bladder is not ulcerated. It also treats pleurisy, drunk in wine,
87| and for the bladder callithrix pounded together with cumin and given in white wine, and verbenaca boiled down to a third with the leaves, or its root in warm honey wine, expels stones; likewise perpressa, which grows at Arretium and in Illyricum, boiled in water from 3 heminae to one and drunk; trifolium taken in wine; and chrysanthemum first. Anthemis also expels stones, with small leaves in fives from the root, 2 long stalks, a rosy flower, the roots ground by themselves [….] cei, laver raw.
88| Silaus grows in gravelly and perennial streams, in the likeness of celery a cubit high. It is cooked as a sour vegetable, with great benefit to the bladder. If the bladder feels itching, it is cured by the root of panaces, which is otherwise useless for bladders.—Stones are driven out by the wandering apple, a pound of the root boiled down in a congius to half—then heminae are taken for three days, and the remainder with wine—and by sea nettle and daucum and the seed of plantago in wine and the herb Fulviana ground in wine. This too has the name of its discoverer, well known to those who handle it.
89| Scordion moves urine; hyoscyamum soothes swellings of the testicles; the juice of peucedanum treats the genitals, the seed with honey; for strangury agaricum, 3 obols in one cyathus of old wine; the root of trifolium, 2 drachmas in wine; of daucum, one drachma, or of the seed. Sufferers from sciatica are cured by the seed and leaves of erythrodanum pounded, by panaces drunk and rubbed in, by Polemonia, by a decoction of the leaf of aristolochia.
90| By agaricum, indeed, the sinew called platys and pain of the shoulders are cured, 3 obols drunk in one cyathus of old wine. Quinquefolium is both drunk and applied for sciatica, as is scamonia boiled, also with barley meal. The seed of either hypericon is drunk in wine. Plantago most quickly cures defects of the seat and chafing; quinquefolium, condylomata; but when these have already turned to callus, the root of cyclaminus in vinegar. The blue anagallis pushes back a prolapse of the seat; the red, by contrast, provokes it.
91| Cotyledon wonderfully cures condylomata and hemorrhoids; swellings of the testicles are cured by the root of acorus boiled in wine, pounded and applied. Cato says that chafing does not occur in those who carry Pontic wormwood with them. Others add pennyroyal also, which if someone has picked it fasting and ties it behind him, prevents pains of the groin or soothes them once begun.
92| The inguinalis, which some call argemonion, growing everywhere in brambles, in order to help is only to be held in the hand. Buboes are cured by panaces with honey, plantago with salt, quinquefolium, the root of persollata as in scrofula, likewise damasonium, and verbascum pounded with its root, sprinkled with wine and wrapped in its leaf and so warmed in ashes, to be applied warm.
93| Those who have tried it affirm that it matters greatly if a virgin applies it, naked and fasting, to a man fasting, touching with the hand turned upward and saying: Apollo says that a plague cannot grow which a naked virgin quenches; and then with the hand turned backward saying it three times, and both spit as many times. The root of mandragora in water also treats it, the decoction of the root of scamonia with honey, sideritis pounded with old fat, marrubium with old axle-grease, or Chrysippios with rich figs. This too has its name from its discoverer.
94| Nymphaea Heraclia removes sexual desire entirely, as we said, a single draught of it lasting for 40 days; also dreams of love, drunk by one fasting and taken in food. The root applied to the genitals restrains not only desire but also the flow of seed; for that reason it is said to nourish the body and the voice. The upper root of xiphion, given in a drink in wine, produces appetite for love, as does the one they call cremnon agrion, and orminos agrios pounded with barley meal.
95| But among the few marvelous is the herb orchis or serapias, with the leaves of a leek, a stalk a palm long, a purple flower, and a double root like testicles, so that the larger, or as some say the more slender, drunk in water, arouses lust, while the smaller or softer, in goat's milk, restrains it. Some say it has the leaf of squill, but lighter and smaller, and a thorny stalk. The roots heal sores of the mouth and phlegm of the chest, and drunk in wine they check the bowels.
96| Satyrion has a rousing power. It has two kinds: one with leaves longer than the olive, a stalk of 4 fingers, a purple flower, a double root in the form of a man's testicles, swelling and subsiding in alternate years. The other is named satyrios orchis and was believed to be the female. It is distinguished by its internodes and a more branching shrub and a root like a phallus. It grows generally near the sea. This soothes swellings and defects of those parts, applied with barley meal or ground by itself. The root of the former, given in the milk of a colonica ewe, tightens the sinews; the same in water relaxes them.
97| The Greeks relate of satyrion that it has red leaves like the lily, smaller, and not more than 3 coming out of the ground, a smooth stalk, a cubit high, bare, a double root, of which the lower and larger part begets males, the upper and smaller females. And another kind of satyrion they call erythraicon, with a seed larger than that of the vitex, smooth, hard, the bark of the root red; within is enclosed a white substance of faintly sweet taste; it is generally found in mountainous places.
98| Desire, they say, is stirred even if the root is held in the hand at all, and the more so if it is drunk in dry wine; it is also given in drink to rams and he-goats that are sluggish, and in Sarmatia to horses made slower in covering by constant labor, a defect they call prosedamum. Its force is quenched by honeyed water or lettuce taken.
99| Indeed the Greeks generally call satyrion whatever they want to signify this rousing, and so they surname crataegis and thelygonon and arrhenogonon, whose seed is like testicles. Those who have the pith of the branches of tithymallus are also said to become more inclined to love. Prodigious are the things that Theophrastus, otherwise a weighty authority, relates about this: that desire lasted through seventy acts of intercourse by the touch of a herb, whose name and kind he did not give.
100| — Sideritis tied on reduces varicose veins and does it without pain. The disease of gout used to be rarer, not only in the memory of our fathers and grandfathers but even in our own, itself a foreigner; for had it been in Italy in antiquity, it would have found a Latin name. It is not to be believed incurable, since in many it has stopped of itself and in more through treatment. Treating it are roots of panaces with raisins, juice of hyoscyamus with meal, or the seed; scordion in vinegar; hiberis, as was said; verbenaca pounded with axle-grease; the root of cyclaminus, whose decoction is also good for chilblains.
101| Gout is cooled by the root of xiphion, the seed of psyllium, cicuta with litharge or axle-grease, aizoum in the first onset of red gout, that is, hot. For either kind erigeron with axle-grease is suitable, leaves of plantago pounded with a little salt added, argemonia crushed with honey. Verbenaca also treats it, applied, or if the feet are soaked in water in which it has been boiled,
102| and lappago, like anagallis, except that it is more branching and has more leaves, and a heavy smell. The one that is so is called mollugo; the similar one with rougher leaves, asperugo. The juice of the former is taken daily, in a weight of 1 denarius in 2 cyathi of wine.
103| — But the chief deliverer from this disease is phycos thalassion, that is, sea weed, like lettuce, which is spread beneath shellfish, applied before it dries, not for gout only but for all diseases of the joints. It has three kinds: the broad, and another longer, somewhat reddish, and the third with curled leaves, with which they dye clothing in Crete; all have the same use. Nicander gave these in wine against serpents too.
104| The seed, too, of the herb we called psyllion is healthful, soaked in water, with 2 spoonfuls of Colophonian resin and one of frankincense added to a hemina of seed. The leaves of mandragora pounded with barley meal are also praised. For swollen ankles, pond mud worked with oil is wonderfully beneficial; for the joints, the juice of the lesser centaurium. The same is most useful for sinews, as is centauris.
105| For sinews running across the shoulder blades, shoulders, spine, loins, Vettonica is drunk as for the liver; for the joints quinquefolium is applied; the leaves of mandragora with barley meal, or the fresh root pounded with wild cucumber or decocted in water; for cracks of the toes on the feet, the root of polypodion; for the joints, the juice of hyoscyamus with axle-grease; amomum with the juice boiled down; likewise centunculus boiled, or fresh moss bound on with water until it dries; likewise the root of lappa boaria drunk in wine.
106| —Cyclaminos boiled in water cures chilblains and all other defects from cold; chilblains also cotyledon with axle-grease, leaves of batrachion, and the juice of epithymum. Ladanum with castoreum draws out corns of the feet; so does verbenaca in wine.
107| Now, having finished the ailments that are felt in the several limbs, we shall speak of those that range over the whole body. I find these remedies, common ones, to be drunk in the authors: dodecatheon, of which we have spoken; then roots of panaces of every kind, specially for long-lasting diseases, and the seed for defects of the intestines; but for all pains of the body the juice of scordion, and likewise of Vettonica, which drunk particularly corrects the leaden color of the body and restores a more pleasing one.
108| Geranion some call myrris, others myrtis. It is like cicuta, with finer leaves and a shorter stalk, round, of pleasant taste and smell. Our people report it so; the Greeks say it has leaves slightly whiter than mallow, slender hairy stalks, branching at intervals, of two palms; in these there are leaves, among which at the tops are little heads like cranes' heads.
109| Another kind has the leaves of anemone, with longer divisions, a round root in the manner of an apple, sweet, most useful to those recovering from weakness, and generally this is the true one. It is drunk against consumption, a drachma in 3 cyathi of wine twice a day, and against flatulence, and raw it does the same. The juice of the root treats the ears; the seed, 4 drachmas drunk with pepper and myrrh, treats opisthotonos.
110| The juice of plantago also cures consumption, if drunk, and the plant itself boiled in food; with salt and oil it cools after the morning sleep. The same is given to those they call atrophoi, on alternate days; Vettonica, however, to consumptives as an electuary with honey, the size of a bean; agaricum drunk in doses of 2 obols in raisin wine; or daucum with the greater centaurium in wine. For phagedaenae, a name for the ravening of the immoderate hungry and also of ulcers, tithymalli taken with sesame are the remedy.
111| Among ailments of the whole body is sleeplessness for most people. For this the remedy shown is panaces, clymenos, aristolochia by smell and with the head anointed; aizoum or sedum, if wrapped in a black cloth it is placed under the pillow of a person who does not know; and onotheras or onear, bringing cheerfulness in wine, with the leaf of an almond, a rosy flower, bushy, with a long root which, when dried, smells of wine. Given in a drink, it tames even wild beasts.
112| Indigestions that cause nausea are dispersed by Vettonica drunk; the same, after dinner, aids digestion in 3 cyathi of oxymel, a drachma by weight, and dispels drunkenness; so does agaricum drunk in hot water after food.—Vettonica is said to cure paralysis, as does hiberis, as was said. The same is also beneficial for numb limbs, as is argemonia, and, by dispersing, everything that is in danger of being cut.
113| Epileptics are cured by the root of the panaces we called Heraclion, drunk with the rennet of a sea calf, so that there are 3 parts of panaces; by plantago drunk; by a drachma of Vettonica in oxymel, or by agaricum in 3 obols; by leaves of quinquefolium in water. Archezostis cures too, but it must be drunk for a year. It cures also
114| the root of baccaris, dried and rubbed to powder, 3 cyathi with one of coriander in hot water; and centunculus pounded in vinegar or honey or hot water; verbenaca drunk in wine; three berries of hyssop, pounded, drunk in water for 16 days; peucedanum drunk with the rennet of a sea calf in equal portions; leaves of quinquefolium pounded in wine and taken for 30 days; meal of Vettonica, 3 denarii by weight, with a cyathus of vinegar of squill and an ounce of Attic honey; scamonium, 2 obols, with castoreum, 4 drachmas.
115| Cold fevers are made milder by agaricum drunk in hot water; tertian fevers by sideritis with oil, and likewise by ladanum, the kind that grows in grain fields, crushed; by plantago in honeyed water drunk 2 hours before the onset, two drachmas each time, or the juice of the root soaked or pounded, or the root itself ground in water heated with iron. Some gave three roots each in 3 cyathi of water. In quartan fevers the same people made it four each. With buglossus drying,
116| if someone takes out the pith from the stalk and says for whom he does it, to be freed from fever, and ties on him 7 leaves before the onset, they say he is freed from the fever; likewise Vettonica, [….] a drachma in 3 cyathi of honeyed water, or agaricum, above all in those fevers that come with shivering. Some gave leaves of quinquefolium, three for tertians, four for quartans, more for the others; others to all 3 obols with pepper in honeyed water.
117| Verbenaca also treats the fevers of beasts of burden, in wine, but in tertians cut from the third joint, in quartans from the fourth. The seed of either hypericon is drunk in quartans and shiverings; meal of Vettonica, which restrains all shiverings; likewise panaces, so heating in nature that they advise those about to go through snow to drink it and to be anointed with it. Aristolochia too resists chills.
118| Sleep cures the frenzied, which comes from peucedanum in vinegar poured on the head, or from the juice of anagallides. By contrast, to rouse the lethargic is a labor; this is done by Euphorbeum in vinegar, touched to the nostrils, and the juice of peucedanum. Against madness Vettonica is drunk. Panaces bursts carbuncles; meal of Vettonica in water cures them, or cabbage with frankincense, in frequent hot drinks, or the ash from a coal quenched in the patient's sight, lifted on a finger and applied, or plantago pounded, or tithymallus characias.
119| Dropsy patients are cured by panaces; by plantago in food, after they have first eaten dry bread without drink; by Vettonica, 2 drachmas in 2 cyathi of wine or honey wine; or agaricum, or the seed of lonchitis, 2 spoonfuls drunk in water; psyllion in wine; the juice of anagallides; the root of cotyledon in honey wine; the root of fresh ebulum, only shaken, not washed, as much as 2 fingers can grasp, in a hemina of hot old wine; the root of trifolium, 2 drachmas in wine; the tithymallus named platyphyllon; the seed of hypericon,
120| which is called caros; acte, which some think to be ebulum, the root pounded, in 3 cyathi of wine, if there is no fever, or the seed in dark wine; likewise verbenaca, a handful-size bundle boiled down in water to half. Yet above all the juice of chamaeacte is believed most suitable.— Eruptions of phlegm are corrected by plantago, the root of cyclaminus with honey, leaves of ebulum pounded in old wine; applied, they also cure the boa, that is, red pustules; the juice of strychnos, applied, cures itching.
121| Sacred fire is treated by aizoum, pounded leaves of cicuta, the root of mandragora, which is cut into small coins like a cucumber and first hung over must, then in smoke, then ground in wine or vinegar. It also helps to bathe with myrtle wine; a sextans of mint with an ounce of live sulphur ground together in vinegar; soot in vinegar. Of sacred fire there are several kinds, among which the one encircling a man at the middle, called zoster, even kills if it has gone all the way round. Plantago with Cimolian earth treats it, and peristereos by itself, the root of persollata; for the others, which creep, the root of cotyledon with honey wine, aizoum, the juice of linozostis in vinegar.
122| The root of polypodion, applied, treats sprains, and the seed of psyllium, leaves of plantago pounded, with a little salt added, the seed of verbascum boiled in wine and ground, and cicuta with axle-grease take away pain and swellings. Leaves of ephemerum are applied to lumps and swellings that can still be dispersed.
123| Jaundice is a marvel especially in the eyes, in the thinness and also thickening of the little coats, as the bile rises beneath them. Hippocrates says it is a mortal sign from the seventh day in a fever. We know that some have lived even after this despair. It also occurs apart from fevers and is overcome by the greater centaurium drunk as we said; by Vettonica; by 3 obols of agaricum in a cyathus of old wine; and by leaves of verbenaca, 3 obols in a hemina of hot wine for four days.
124| But most quickly the juice of quinquefolium treats it, drunk in 3 cyathi. The root of cyclaminus is drunk in doses of 3 drachmas in a warm place and safe from chills—for it brings on bilious sweats—; leaves of tussilago in water; the seed of either linozostis sprinkled into a drink or boiled with wormwood or chickpea; hyssop berries drunk with water; the herb lichen, if when it is taken one abstains from other greens; polythrix given in wine; struthion in honey wine.
125| Here and there, in any part, arise the most troublesome things of all, called furuncles, sometimes a deadly evil to cut bodies. A remedy is leaves of pycnocomon pounded with barley meal, if they have not yet come to a head. Leaves of ephedrus applied also disperse them.
126| Fistulas also spread in every part when bodies have been badly cut through the fault of physicians. Help is given by the lesser centaurium, boiled down with honey and put in as plugs; the juice of plantago poured in; quinquefolium with salt and honey; ladanum with castoreum; cotyledon warmed with deer marrow and applied; the pith of the root of verbascum, made as thin as a plug, is put into the fistula; so is the root of aristolochia, or the juice of tithymallus.
127| Gatherings and inflammations are cured by leaves of argemonia applied; hardnesses and all gatherings by verbenaca or quinquefolium boiled in vinegar, by leaves or root of verbascum, by hyssop in wine applied, by the root of acorus, bathing with its decoction, by aizoum; and so too bruises, hardnesses and cavities of the body by illecebra.
128| Leaves of tussilago draw out everything lodged in the body, as does daucum, and the seed of leontopodion pounded in water with barley meal. Leaves of pycnocomon pounded with barley meal, or the seed, are applied to suppurations, as is orchis. Defects in the bones are said to be most effectively cured by the root of satyrion applied; spreading sores and all gatherings by sea weed, before it dries. The root of alcima also disperses gatherings.
129| Burns are cured by plantago, by arction in such a way that the scar is not noticed—its leaves boiled in water and ground are applied—by the root of cyclaminus, by aizoum, and by the herb hypericon itself, which we called corissum.
130| For sinews and joints plantago pounded with salt is suitable, argemonia crushed with honey. Those with spasms and tetanus are anointed with the juice of peucedanum, and for hardness of the sinews with the juice of aegilops; for pains erigeron is applied in vinegar, and epithymum. For those with spasms and opisthotonos it helps to be anointed with the seed of hypericon, which is called caros, and the same helps when drunk. Phrynion is said even to heal severed sinews, if it is applied at once, pounded or chewed. For those with spasms, tremors, opisthotonos, the root of alcima is drunk in honeyed water. So also it warms stiffnesses.
131| Flows of blood are stopped by the red seed of the herb Paeonia—the same power is in the root—and by clymenus, whether blood is brought up by the mouth or flows from the nostrils or the bowels or the womb of women; likewise Lysimachia drunk, or applied, or put in the nostrils; likewise the seed of plantago; quinquefolium drunk and applied; the seed of cicuta in the nostrils, if it flows from there, ground in water and put in; aizoum; the root of astragalus. Ischaemon and Achillia also stop it.
132| Equisaetum, called hippuris by the Greeks and in meadows reviled by us—it is a hair of the earth like a horse's bristle—extinguishes the spleens of runners, boiled in a new earthen pot down to a third, however much the vessel holds, and drunk in heminae for three days; rich foods are forbidden from one day before. The Greeks hold various opinions about this:
133| some call a dark plant like the leaves of pine by the same name, reporting its power as wonderful, that flows of blood are stopped even if a person is merely touched with it; others call it hippuris, others ephedron, others anabasis, and they say that it grows beside trees and climbing them hangs down with many rushy, black tresses, as from a horse's tail, with jointed little branches; that it has few leaves, thin and small, a round seed like coriander, a woody root, and grows chiefly in thickets.
134| Its power is to thicken the tissues. The juice, shut in, stops blood flowing from the nostrils, and the bowels also. Drunk in sweet wine, 3 cyathi, it treats those with dysentery, moves urine, cures cough and orthopnoea, likewise ruptures and spreading sores. The leaves are drunk for the intestines and bladder, and restrain intestinal rupture. They also make another hippuris with shorter, softer and whiter tresses, very useful for sciatica, and applied in vinegar to wounds to stop blood.
135| —Nymphaea, ground, is also applied to blows. Peucedanum is drunk with the seed of cypress, if blood has been brought up by the mouth or has flowed from below. Sideritis has such power that, bound on even a fresh wound of a gladiator, it closes the blood, as does the ash of a ferula or its charcoal, and still more effectively the fungus that grows beside its root.
136| For one bleeding from the nose, the seed of cicuta, ground in water and inserted, is held effective, and likewise stephanomelis in water. Meal of Vettonica drunk in goat's milk stops a flow from the breast, and so does plantago pounded. Its juice is given to those vomiting blood. For the wandering sore the root of persollata applied with old axle-grease is approved;
137| for those ruptured and convulsed, thrown down from a height, the greater centaurium, the root of Gentiana pounded or boiled or its juice, Vettonica, and beyond this for strains of the voice or the side, panaces, scordium, aristolochia drunk, agaricum; the same, drunk in doses of 2 obols in 3 cyathi of honey wine, for the bruised and overturned or, if there is fever, in honeyed water; verbascum, whose flower is like gold; the root of acorus; every aizoum, but the juice of the greater most effectively; likewise broth of symphytum or a decoction of its root; daucum raw; erysithales—with a yellow flower and the leaves of acanthus—in wine; chamaerops; and in gruel irio or plantago in every way; likewise [….].
138| The dictator Sulla was consumed by lice, and animals are born in a man's very blood that will eat out the body. They are resisted by the juice of the taminian grape or of veratrum with oil, the bodies being anointed; taminia boiled in vinegar even frees clothes from this annoyance.
139| Ulcers are of many kinds and are cured in many ways. The root of panaces of every kind in warm wine is applied to weeping ones. The one we called Chironian is a special drier; pounded with honey it opens tumors, and for spreading ulcers given up as hopeless it is a help when tempered with flower of copper in wine in every way, whether seed, flower or root. The same with barley meal benefits old wounds, and also Heraclion siderion,
140| Apollinaris, psyllium, tragacantha. Scordotis with honey cleans; its meal, sprinkled on by itself, consumes excrescent flesh. Polemonia heals the ulcers they call cacoethe; the greater centaurium, sprinkled on or applied, and the crest of the lesser, boiled or ground, cleans old ulcers also and cures them thoroughly. The pods of clymenus are applied to fresh wounds. Gentiana is applied to spreading ulcers, the root pounded or boiled in water to the thickness of honey, or the juice; for wounds, Lycium made from it.
141| Lysimachia treats fresh wounds; plantago ulcers of every kind, particularly of the old and of infants. Softened at the fire it is better, and with cerate it cleans the thick lips of ulcers and stops spreading sores; once pounded, it must be covered with its own leaves. Suppurations, gatherings and the pockets of ulcers are dried by chelidonia too, and wounds so much that they even use it in place of spodium; the same is applied with axle-grease to those already given up.
142| Dictamnum, drunk, drives out arrows and, applied, draws out other missiles—it is drunk in a cyathus of water with an obol of the leaves—and next to it pseudodictamnum; both also disperse suppurations. Aristolochia also eats out putrid ulcers, cleans foul ones with honey, and draws out worms, and likewise nails born in an ulcer and everything lodged in the body, especially arrows and broken bones, with resin; and it fills hollow ulcers by itself and with iris, fresh wounds in vinegar;
143| old ulcers, verbenaca; quinquefolium with salt and honey. The roots of persollata are applied to fresh wounds made by iron, the leaves to old ones; damasonium is covered on both sides with axle-grease and with its own leaf, as in scrofula; leaves of verbascum in vinegar or wine.
144| Peristereos serves for all kinds of ulcers, even callous and festering ones. Weeping ulcers are cured by the root of nymphaea Heraclia, and by the root of cyclaminus, either by itself or in vinegar or with honey; the same is effective also against steatomata. So too for weeping ulcers, hyssop, and peucedanum; its power for fresh wounds is so great that it draws a scale from bones. Anagallides do this also and restrain the spreading sores they call nomae and rheums, and are useful for fresh wounds too,
145| but especially for the bodies of the old, with cerate: for abscesses and foul ulcers, fresh leaves of mandragora; the root for wounds, with honey or oil; cicuta mixed with fine wheat flour in unmixed wine; aizoum, herpetes also and nomae and festering sores, as erigeron does worm-infested ones; for fresh wounds, the root of astragalus, and for old ulcers, which both kinds of hypocisthis clean. The seed of leontopodion, ground in water and applied with barley meal, draws out arrowheads, and so does the seed of pycnocomon.
146| Tithymallus characias, by its juice, treats gangrenes, phagedaenae and putrid sores, or by a decoction of the branches with barley meal and oil; the roots of orchis do this and more, and cacoethe too, with honey, dried or fresh, by themselves for wounds; onothera heals ulcers that grow wild. The Scythians cure Scythian ulcers. Against cancers argemonia with honey is most effective.
147| For ulcers that have healed over prematurely, the root of asphodel, boiled as we said, pounded with barley meal and applied; for any whatever, Apollinaris; the root of astragalus ground to powder is beneficial for moist ulcers, as is callithrix boiled in water, and particularly for those caused by shoes, verbenaca, and Lysimachia crushed, and nymphaea dried and rubbed on. Polythrix is more useful for the same ones when they are of long standing.
148| — Polycnemon is like cunila bubula, with the seed of pennyroyal, twiggy, with many joints, with a cluster [fragrant], of a sharp and sweet smell; chewed, it is applied to wounds made by iron, and is removed on the fifth day. Symphyton brings a wound most quickly to a scar, as does sideritis; this is applied with honey.
149| With verbascum seed and leaves, boiled in wine and ground, everything lodged in the body is drawn out; likewise with leaves of mandragora with barley meal, and roots of cyclaminus with honey. Leaves of trixago ground in oil are applied above all to those ulcers that spread, as is alcima ground in honey; Vettonica for cancers and old malandriae, with salt added.
150| Warts are removed by argemonia in vinegar, or the root of batrachion, which also takes away rough nails; by the leaves of either linozostis or its juice applied. Tithymalli of every kind remove all kinds of warts, and also pterygia and pimples; ladanum restores scars gracefully to their color.— It is said that a traveler who has artemisia and elelisphacum tied on him feels no weariness.—
151| For women's diseases, as a whole, the black seed of the herb Paeonia in honeyed water is the best remedy; the same power is in the root. The seed of panaces with wormwood brings on the menses; scordotis, by drink and by application, brings on menses and sweats. Vettonica, a drachma in 3 cyathi of wine, is drunk against all defects of the womb or those that arise from childbirth. Achillia, applied as a pessary, stops excessive menses, and so does a decoction of it for women sitting in it.
152| The seed of hyoscyamus in wine is applied to the breasts, the root in a poultice to the parts below, and chelidonia to the breasts. Roots of panaces, applied as pessaries, draw out a delaying afterbirth or dead fetuses. Panaces itself drunk in wine purges the womb, and applied with honey. Polemonia drunk in wine expels the afterbirth, and by its smell corrects the womb.
153| The juice of the lesser centaurium, by drinking and fomentation, brings on the menses; the root of the greater benefits pains of the womb in the same ways, and scraped off and applied as a pessary draws out dead fetuses. Plantago is applied in wool for pain of the womb, and is drunk for suffocation. But the chief power belongs to dictamnum: it brings on the menses and expels dead or transverse fetuses—it is drunk in water, an obol of the leaves—so effective for these that it is not even brought into the bedroom of pregnant women, and it is potent not only by drinking but also by application and fumigation;
154| Next comes pseudodictamnum; but it promotes menstruation when boiled down in neat wine, a denarius by weight. Aristolochia, however, helps in the greatest number of ways: it promotes both menstruation and the afterbirth and draws out dead fetuses, drunk, or applied as a pessary, with myrrh and pepper added; it also checks prolapse of the womb, by fomentation, by fumigation or by application, the slender kind especially.
155| Suffocation of the womb arising from these causes, and difficult menstruation, are put right by agaricum, 3 oboli taken in a cyathus of old wine; by peristereos applied in fresh pig's lard; and by antirrhinon with rose oil and honey. Likewise the root of the Thessalian nymphaea, applied, relieves pain, and taken in dark wine checks excessive discharges; the root of cyclaminus, on the contrary, taken in drink and applied, promotes them, and a decoction of it heals the bladder of those who sit in it.
156| Cissanthemos taken in drink expels the afterbirth and heals the womb. Of xiphium, the upper root promotes menstruation, a drachma taken in vinegar. Peucedanum, burnt, revives with its smoke women suffering from suffocation of the womb; psyllion is especially good for white discharges, a drachma in 3 cyathi of water; the seed of mandragora taken in drink purges the womb, and its juice, applied as a pessary, promotes menstruation and brings out dead fetuses.
157| Excessive flows, on the other hand, are stopped by its seed with native sulphur; batrachium, on the contrary, promotes them, taken in drink or in food. It is burning in other respects when raw, as we have said, but when cooked it is made palatable with salt, oil and cumin. Daucum taken in drink expels both menstruation and the afterbirth very easily; ladanum corrects the womb by fumigation and is applied for pain and ulceration there. Scamonium, taken in drink or applied, expels dead fetuses.
158| Both kinds of hypericum promote menstruation when applied, but above all, in the opinion of Hippocrates, crethmos in wine, either the seed or the bark of the root; it also draws out the afterbirth, and taken in water it relieves suffocations. Likewise the root of geranium is peculiarly suited to the afterbirth and to flatulence of the womb. Hippuris, taken in drink and applied, purges the womb, and so does polygonus taken in drink. The root of alcima also promotes menstruation; the leaves of plantago expel it, and so does agaricum in honey-water.
159| Artemisia, pounded, cures the womb, applied in iris oil, or with a fig, or with myrrh; its root taken in drink purges so thoroughly that it brings out dead fetuses. A decoction of its branches promotes menstruation and the afterbirth when women sit in it, and so do the leaves taken in drink, a drachma. For all these same purposes they also help when laid on the lower belly with barley meal.
160| Acoron too is useful for women's internal diseases, and so are both kinds of conyza, and crethmos. The two anthyllides also, taken in wine, are most useful for the womb, for griping pains, and for retention of the afterbirth. Callithrix heals those parts by fomentation, removes white scurf on the head, and dyes the hair when pounded in oil. Geranion taken in white wine, and hypocisthis taken in red, stop a flux. Hysopum relieves suffocations. The root of verbenaca taken in water is the most excellent remedy for all the troubles that come in childbirth or after it.
161| Some mix with peucedanum crushed cypress seed in dark wine. Moreover, psyllion seed boiled in water, once it has cooled to lukewarm, soothes all fluxes of the uterus. Symphyton pounded in dark wine draws out menstruation. Scordotis hastens delivery, a drachma of the juice taken in 4 cyathi of honey-water. The leaves of dictamnum are given in water with excellent effect; it is established that at the weight of a single obolus, even if the infants are dead in the womb, they are delivered at once without distress to the mother. Pseudodictamnum helps in the same way, but more slowly; so do cyclaminos tied on as an amulet, cissanthemos drunk, and likewise the meal of Vettonica in honey-water.
162| Arsenogonon and thelygonon are plants with clusters like the flowers of the olive, but paler, and white seed such as the poppy has. By drinking thelygonon, they say, a female child is conceived; arsenogonon differs from it only in its seed, which is like the olive's, and by drinking it males are begotten, if we believe it. Others report that both resemble ocimum, but that arsenogonon's seed is double, like testicles.
163| For disorders of the breasts aizoum, which we have called digitillum, is a remedy without equal. Erigeron in raisin wine makes the breasts give more milk, and so does the broth of sonchus cooked with spelt. The plant called mastos, applied, removes the hairs that grow on the breasts at childbirth; spots on the face and other blemishes of the skin are removed by gentiana and by nymphaea Heraclia applied, and the root of cyclaminus removes all marks. The seeds of cacalia mixed with liquid wax stretch the skin of the face and smooth out its wrinkles. The root of acoron removes all blemishes.
164| The juice of lycium makes the hair blond; hypericum, which is also called corissum, blackens it, and so does the plant ophrys, which resembles a vegetable with toothed leaves and has 2 leaves. Polemonia boiled in oil also gives a black colour. Depilatories we, for our part, deal with among women's medicines, but they are now in use among men as well. Archezostis is held to be the most effective, and also the tithymalli, the juice applied repeatedly with oil in the sun, or after the hairs have been plucked out. — Hysopum in oil cures mange in quadrupeds, and sideritis especially the quinsy of pigs. — But let us now set out the remaining kinds of plants as well.
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