Caelius Aurelianus on Mental Disorders is a DFG sponsored project concerned with Caelius Aurelianus, a fourth/fifth century(?) medical author in the tradition of the Methodist school of medicine. His monumental nosological work, On Acute Diseases and On Chronic Diseases is, to an important extent, a Latinisation of a lost Greek treatise written by Soranus of Ephesus (first/second century). Thus far, the scholarly discourse has primarily focused on whether Caelius is simply a translator or an adapter of Soranus. However, several recent scholars (and more frequently Latinists) propose that he was also an original thinker. Caelius’ late antiquity work displays his great knowledge of medical tradition up to the time of Soranus and of his keen critical mind. The bilingual and intercultural nature of the text also makes it an invaluable contribution to the study of Graeco-Roman medicine.

This project redirects the focus onto Caelius’ development of medical ideas regarding mental health. We aim to thoroughly examine Caelius’ stance on the nature of mental and bodily health by highlighting his rich accounts of the nosology, causation, and therapeutics of diseases. The aim is to bring this author—who is largely overlooked outside the small circle historians of ancient medicine—into the spotlight, by providing a detailed analysis of his work and to contribute to filling in a gap that exists in studies of ancient medicine.

This project is carried out in cooperation with the Doctoral Research Fellow Krystal Marlier, who works on Caelius’ text from the angle of history of psychiatry and historical psychology. Its outcomes are a doctoral dissertation devoted to the topic and a Conference which will take place in Berlin in 2023.

Another part of the project, provisionally entitled ‘The physician from Sicca’, aims at gathering as much information as possible about the environment, the occupations, the socio-intellectual, political and economical context in which Caelius lived and worked, starting from the text and posing particular attention to his reference to patients’ lives and to his own professional activities.

caelius aurelianus

International conference - Summer 2023

Call for papers:

The DFG funded project 434908800 (DFG - GEPRIS - Mental Health in Late Antique Medicine: Caelius Aurelianus on Mental Disorders, 2020-2023) based in the Dept. of Classics at the CAU University in Kiel aims at exploring in new perspectives the rich and fascinating text of Caelius Aurelianus’ Acute Diseases and on Chronic Diseases.

Several decades after the last dedicated event, we are very excited to announce a CALL FOR PAPERS for a conference aimed at delving further and investigating more facets of Caelius Aurelianus. We especially wish to encourage interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary discussions on the medical practices he reports on, the doctrinal topics he presents, the material circumstances we can infer from his work. We also hope to be able to discuss his writing and compositional style in light of new approaches and methodologies.

Format and schedule

Papers will be 30 minutes in length with 10 minutes for Q&A and discussion. The conference is planned for the summer of 2023 and will take place in Berlin, hosted by the Humboldt University. Hybrid options are considered for individual cases, but we hope to hold the majority of the event in person.

Submissions

Submissions from scholars at all career stages are welcomed. We hope to gather an inclusive and diverse group of speakers, working on ancient medicine, the historiography of medicine and medical texts, but also ancient historians, historians of philosophy and science, medical anthropologists, specialists in North African contexts, and students of Latin language and literature. We aim at gathering as wide and varied a community as possible to shed light on Caelius Aurelianus as a key author in the history of Late Antique medicine, and important testimony on a milieu that deserves closer and dedicated attention.

Possible topics may include (but are not limited to):

  • The world of Caelius Aurelianus (what do we know of his cultural and political context?)

  • His discussions of patients (e.g., therapeutics, soothing remedies, empathy)

  • Diseases – his nosology

  • Philosophy and medicine in his work

  • The Methodism of Caelius Aurelianus

  • Criticism, rivalry, competition and disagreement in his medical doxography and sources

  • Absentees and omissions: the medical sources who ‘are not there’

  • Philological and editorial questions

  • Issues of language, style, translation into Latin and use of Greek

The conference is organised by Chiara Thumiger (Roots, CAU Kiel) and Krystal Marlier (CAU Kiel). Please send abstracts of no more than 300 to 400 words in .pdf format by email to caeliusconference@gmail.com by June 2022. The body of the email should include your name, paper title, affiliation, and contact information. All other enquiries should also be directed to this e-mail address.

Notifications to all applicants will be given by the end of July 2022.