Overview

This book examines the environment and society of North Africa during the late Roman period (fourth and fifth centuries CE) through the writings of Helvius Vindicianus, Theodorus Priscianus, Caelius Aurelianus, and Cassius Felix. These four medical writers, whose translation into Latin of precious Greek texts has been hailed as ‘the achievement of the millennium’ by one modern scholar, provide a unique opportunity to understand North Africa, the most prosperous region of the Roman World during Late Antiquity. Although focusing on medical knowledge and hygiene, their writings provide fresh insights on the environment, economy, population, language, and health facilities of the region. Roman North Africa: Environment, Society and Medical Contribution includes the first full discussion of the exceptional career of the physician Helvius Vindicianus, as well as a valuable reassessment of other writers whose works were read throughout the Middle Ages. It will therefore prove invaluable not only for scholars of Late Antiquity and North Africa, but also for those working on later periods.

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Reviews

This volume offers a wealth of material about medical practice in the late antique world. The focus is on four authors of the fourth and fifth centuries who translated Greek medical texts into Latin: Helvius Vindicianus, Theodorus Priscianus, Caelius Aurelianus, and Cassius Felix. These are not names familiar even to North African specialists and so this book is a welcome contribution to the expansion of knowledge of this important region of the Roman empire in late antiquity. Particularly fascinating for me was the discovery of so many women who not only practised medicine but also wrote about it. - Geoffrey D. Dunn, Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association, Volume 16, 2020

Author Information

Louise Cilliers is currently Honorary Research Fellow (and formerly Professor of Classical Languages) at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa. For many years she served as the editor of the international journal Acta Classica. She has published numerous articles on ancient medicine, Late Antique North Africa, and related subjects.

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