Alexander of Tralles
Encyclopedia
Alexander of Tralles in Lydia
Lydia
Lydia was an Iron Age kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the modern Turkish provinces of Manisa and inland İzmir. Its population spoke an Anatolian language known as Lydian....

 (or Alexander Trallianus, c. 525 – c.605) was one of the most eminent of the ancient physicians. His date may safely be put in the 6th century, for he mentions 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...

, who probably did not write until the end of the 5th or the beginning of the 6th century, and he is himself quoted by Paul of Aegina
Paul of Aegina
Paul of Aegina or Paulus Aegineta was a 7th-century Byzantine Greek physician best known for writing the medical encyclopedia Medical Compendium in Seven Books...

, who is supposed to have lived in the 7th century; besides which, he is mentioned as a contemporary of Agathias
Agathias
Agathias or Agathias Scholasticus , of Myrina , an Aeolian city in western Asia Minor , was a Greek poet and the principal historian of part of the reign of the Roman emperor Justinian I between 552 and 558....

, who set about writing his History in the beginning of the reign of Justin II
Justin II
Justin II was Byzantine Emperor from 565 to 578. He was the husband of Sophia, nephew of Justinian I and the late Empress Theodora, and was therefore a member of the Justinian Dynasty. His reign is marked by war with Persia and the loss of the greater part of Italy...

, about 565.

Life

Alexander had the advantage of being brought up under his father Stephanus, who was himself a physician, and also under another person, whose name he does not mention, but to whose son Cosmas he dedicates his chief work, which he wrote out of gratitude at his request. He was a man of an extensive practice, of a very long experience, and of great reputation, not only at Rome, but wherever he traveled in Spain, Gaul, and Italy, whence he was called by way of eminence "Alexander the Physician". Agathias
Agathias
Agathias or Agathias Scholasticus , of Myrina , an Aeolian city in western Asia Minor , was a Greek poet and the principal historian of part of the reign of the Roman emperor Justinian I between 552 and 558....

 speaks also with great praise of his four brothers, Anthemius, Dioscorus, Metrodorus, and Olympius, who were all eminent in their several professions. Alexander is not a mere compiler, like 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...

, 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 others, but is an author of quite a different stamp, and has more the air of an original writer. He wrote his great work in an extreme old age, from the results of his own experience, when he could no longer bear the fatigue of practice. His style in the main was, according to scholars such as John Freind
John Freind
John Freind , FRS, was an English physician.-Life:He was younger brother of Robert Freind , headmaster of Westminster School, and was born at Croton in Northamptonshire...

, very good, short, clear, and (to use Alexander's own term) consisting of common expressions; and though not always perfectly elegant, yet very expressive and intelligible.

German scholar Johann Albert Fabricius
Johann Albert Fabricius
Johann Albert Fabricius was a German classical scholar and bibliographer.-Biography:Fabricius was born at Leipzig, son of Werner Fabricius, director of music in the church of St. Paul at Leipzig, who was the author of several works, the most important being Deliciae Harmonicae...

 considered Alexander to have belonged to the sect of the Methodici
Methodic school
The Methodic school of medicine was an ancient school of medicine in ancient Greece and Rome. The Methodic school arose in reaction to both the Empiric school and the Dogmatic school...

, but in the opinion of Freind this is not proved sufficiently by the existing text.

Perhaps the most curious art of his practice appears to be his belief in charms and amulet
Amulet
An amulet, similar to a talisman , is any object intended to bring good luck or protection to its owner.Potential amulets include gems, especially engraved gems, statues, coins, drawings, pendants, rings, plants and animals; even words said in certain occasions—for example: vade retro satana—, to...

s. For example, his suggestion for treatment of ague
Ague
Ague may refer to:* Fever* MalariaSee also:* Kan Ague, a residential area of Patikul, Sulu, Philippines...

: "Gather olive leaf before sunrise, write on it with common ink (ka roi a), and hang it round the neck." In exorcising gout
Gout
Gout is a medical condition usually characterized by recurrent attacks of acute inflammatory arthritis—a red, tender, hot, swollen joint. The metatarsal-phalangeal joint at the base of the big toe is the most commonly affected . However, it may also present as tophi, kidney stones, or urate...

 he says, "I adjure thee by the great name " (Iao Sabaoth), and a little further on, "I adjure thee with the holy names " (Iao, Sabaoth, Adonai, Eloi), from which he would appear to have been either a Jew or a Christian, and, from his frequent prescription of pork, it is most probable that he was a Christian.

Works

His chief work, titled Twelve Books on Medicine, first appeared in an old, imperfect Latin translation, with the title Alexandri Yatros Practica, which was several times printed. It was first edited in Greek by Jac. Goupylus (Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 1548, fol.), a beautiful and scarce edition, containing also Rhazae de Pestilentia Libellus ex Syrorum Lingua is Graecam Translatus.

The other work of Alexander's that is still extant is a short treatise, , De Lumbricis, which was first published in Greek and Latin by Hieronymus Mercurialis (Venica 1570, 4to). Alexander seems also to have written several other medical works which are now lost.Alexander also is credited with the discovery that depression (melancholia) can lead to homicidal and suicidal tendencies (dianne, hales R. Depression
Depression (mood)
Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behaviour, feelings and physical well-being. Depressed people may feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, or restless...

). He expresses his intention of writing a book on Fractures, and also on Wounds of the Head. A treatise on Urine written by him is alluded to by Joannes Actuarius
Joannes Actuarius
Joannes Zacharias Actuarius , son of Zacharias, was a Byzantine physician in Constantinople. He practiced with some degree of credit, as he was honored with the title of Actuarius, a dignity frequently conferred at that court upon physicians.-Biography:Very little is known of the events of his...

, and he himself mentions a work of his on Diseases of the Eyes, which was translated into Arabic. The other medical treatise on Pleurisy
Pleurisy
Pleurisy is an inflammation of the pleura, the lining of the pleural cavity surrounding the lungs. Among other things, infections are the most common cause of pleurisy....

, which is said to have been also translated into Arabic, was probably only the sixth book of his great work, which is entirely devoted to the consideration of this disease. Two other medical works which are sometimes attributed to Alexander Trallianus (viz. a Collection of Medical and Physical Problems, and a treatise on Fevers) could also be attributed to Alexander of Aphrodisias
Alexander of Aphrodisias
Alexander of Aphrodisias was a Peripatetic philosopher and the most celebrated of the Ancient Greek commentators on the writings of Aristotle. He was a native of Aphrodisias in Caria, and lived and taught in Athens at the beginning of the 3rd century, where he held a position as head of the...

.
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