Diocles of Carystus: A Collection of the Fragments with Translation and Commentary (review)

This monumental work of more than one thousand pages, devoted to the fourth-century B.C. Greek physician and scientist Diocles of Carystus, represents contemporary scholarship in the history of ancient medicine in its most productive form, a scholarship that does not shirk the drudgery of clearing away more than a century of luxurient but strangling overgrowth, and thereby making a new overview possible. This being the situation, readers must accept that they will leave these volumes knowing decidedly less about Diocles and his medicine than previous scholars have pretended was possible—but in exchange, they will know it much more truly: if Philip van der Eijk reduces the number of facts we may claim to command, he more than repays our loss by bringing clearly into the light the questions that we can and should now be asking.

Volume 1 (Text and Translation) opens, after a brief reference to Diocles' importance and the place he has occupied in the history of medicine (pp. vii-x), with a well-considered and lucid discussion (pp. x-xxii) of the special problems that the present collection of fragments entails: for example, where in each fragment does the reference to Diocles actually begin, and where does it end? Should potential references to Diocles be included in the collection when they do not name him directly, but possibly include him in some collective designation such as "the ancient doctors"? Is the distinction between what appear to be direct quotes delivered in Diocles' own words and what are clearly statements about his opinions expressed in the reporter's words hermeneutically significant? How is the particular textual-criticism situation obtaining for each fragment most clearly and concisely to be presented? Next follow a table of contents of the 241 fragments, a list of known titles of Diocles' works (pp. xxv-xxxiv), and then, as the main body of the book, the fragments themselves, both in their original language (Greek, Latin, or Arabic) on even-numbered pages, and in complete English translations on facing odd-numbered pages (pp. 2-391). The order of fragments is by subject, as follows: Diocles' life and chronology (frs. 1-12); his general approach to medicine (frs. 13-16); anatomy (frs. 17-24); physiology (frs. 25-39); reproduction (frs. 40-48); general pathology (frs. 49-71); special pathology (frs. 72-144); therapy (frs. 145-67); gynecology (frs. 168-75); dietetics (frs. 176-86); specific foods, drinks, and herbs (frs. 187-238); and miscellaneous (frs. 239-41). There follow four indexes: of the textual sources of the fragments, ordered alphabetically by author; of all Greek, Latin, and Arabic words occurring in the more-verbatim fragments; of the more significant Greek and Latin words occurring in the less-verbatim fragments; and a general index to the fragments.

The second volume (Commentary) begins with a general discussion of the writers and works from which the fragments are drawn (including any specific peculiarities that may bear upon the form and reliability of the evidence they furnish (pp. viii-xxii)), and of Diocles' works and his significance in the history of medicine (pp. xxii-xxxviii). The commentator then procedes through the fragments one by one: summarizing contents and context, giving background information on specific persons, concepts, and historical relationships, and adding relevant parallels from other ancient sources (pp. 1-426). The volume closes with an extensive bibliography of primary and secondary sources, a general index to the volume, and an index of all ancient...