Adamantius was an ancient physician, bearing the title of Iatrosophista . Little is known of his personal history, except that he was Jewish

Judaism

Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...

 by birth, and that he was one of those who fled from Alexandria

Alexandria

Alexandria is the second-largest city of Egypt, with a population of 4.1 million, extending about along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country; it is also the largest city lying directly on the Mediterranean coast. It is Egypt's largest seaport, serving...

 at the time of the expulsion of the Jews from that city by the Patriarch

Patriarch of Alexandria

The Patriarch of Alexandria is the Archbishop of Alexandria and Cairo, Egypt. Historically, this office has included the designation of Pope , and did so earlier than that of the Bishop of Rome...

 Cyril of Alexandria

Cyril of Alexandria

Cyril of Alexandria was the Patriarch of Alexandria from 412 to 444. He came to power when the city was at its height of influence and power within the Roman Empire. Cyril wrote extensively and was a leading protagonist in the Christological controversies of the later 4th and 5th centuries...

 in 415

415

Year 415 was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Honorius and Theodosius...

. He went to Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

, was persuaded to embrace Christianity

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

, apparently by Archbishop Atticus of Constantinople

Archbishop Atticus of Constantinople

Atticus was the archbishop of Constantinople, succeeding Arsacius of Tarsus in March 406. He had been an opponent of John Chrysostom and helped Arsacius of Tarsus depose him, but later became a supporter of him after his death...

, and then returned to Alexandria.

He is the author of a Greek treatise on physiognomy

Physiognomy

Physiognomy is the assessment of a person's character or personality from their outer appearance, especially the face...

  in two books. It is still extant, and borrows in a great measure (as Adamantius himself confesses) from Polemon

Polemon of Laodiceia

Marcus Antonius Polemon or Antonius Polemon, also known as Polemon of Smyrna or Polemon of Laodicea was a sophist who lived in the 2nd century....

's work on the same subject. It is dedicated to "Constantius", who is supposed by Fabricius

Fabricius

Fabricius may refer to:*people from the Ancient Roman gens Fabricia:*Gaius Fabricius Luscinus, the first of the Fabricii to move to Rome* Carel Fabricius , painter...

 to be the same Constantius who married Placidia

Galla Placidia

Aelia Galla Placidia , daughter of the Roman Emperor Theodosius I, was the Regent for Emperor Valentinian III from 423 until his majority in 437, and a major force in Roman politics for most of her life...

 (i.e. Constantius III

Constantius III

Flavius Constantius , commonly known as Constantius III, was Western Roman Emperor for seven months in 421. A prominent general and politician, he was the power behind the throne for much of the 410s, and in 421 briefly became co-emperor of the Western Empire with Honorius.- Early life and rise to...

), the daughter of Theodosius the Great

Theodosius I

Theodosius I , also known as Theodosius the Great, was Roman Emperor from 379 to 395. Theodosius was the last emperor to rule over both the eastern and the western halves of the Roman Empire. During his reign, the Goths secured control of Illyricum after the Gothic War, establishing their homeland...

, and who reigned for seven months in conjunction with the Emperor Honorius

Honorius (emperor)

Honorius , was Western Roman Emperor from 395 to 423. He was the younger son of emperor Theodosius I and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla, and brother of the eastern emperor Arcadius....

. It was first published in Greek in Paris in 1540. Several of his medical prescriptions are preserved by Oribasius

Oribasius

Oribasius or Oreibasius was a Greek medical writer and the personal physician of the Roman emperor Julian the Apostate. He studied at Alexandria under physician Zeno of Cyprus before joining Julian's retinue. He was involved in Julian's coronation in 361, and remained with the emperor until...

 and Aëtius.

Another of his works, (Lat. De Ventis), is quoted by the Scholiast

Scholium

Scholia , are grammatical, critical, or explanatory comments, either original or extracted from pre-existing commentaries, which are inserted on the margin of the manuscript of an ancient author, as glosses. One who writes scholia is a scholiast...

 to Hesiod

Hesiod

Hesiod was a Greek oral poet generally thought by scholars to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. His is the first European poetry in which the poet regards himself as a topic, an individual with a distinctive role to play. Ancient authors credited him and...

, and an extract from it is given by Aëtius Amidenus

Aëtius Amidenus

Aëtius of Amida was a Byzantine physician and medical writer, particularly distinguished by the extent of his erudition. Historians are not agreed about his exact date...

. The text was published in 1864 by Valentin Rose

Valentin Rose (classicist)

Valentin Rose was a German classicist and textual critic.-Personal life:Valentin Rose was the son of mineralogist Gustav Rose , and a nephew to famed mineralogist Heinrich Rose and to the pharmacist Wilhelm Rose , of whom he published a brief remembrance...

in Anecdota Graeca.