CELSUS

Of the life of Celsus nothing is known; but he was an older contemporary of Columella. Colum. iii. 17, 4, ‘Iulius Atticus et Cornel i us Celsus, aetatis nostrae celeberrimi auctores, patrem atque filium Sasernam secuti.’ He wrote an encyclopaedic work on agriculture, medicine, war, rhetoric, and philosophy, but only the section on medicine is extant. Quint. xi. 12, 24, ‘Cum etiam Cornel i us Celsus, mediocri vir ingenio, non solum de his omnibus con scrip ser it artibus sed amplius rei militar is et rusticae et medicinae praecepta relique rit.’ The first part consisted of five books on agriculture: cf. Colum. i. 1, 14, ‘Cornel i us totum corpus disciplinae quinque libris complexus est.’ This section of the work was probably written in the reign of Tiberius, for it was known to Iulius Graecinus, whose execution took place under Caligula. Plin. N.H. xiv. 33, ‘Graecinus, qui alioqui Cornelium Celsum transcripsit.’ There are eight books De Re Medica . The only indication of their date is in iv. 7, where Celsus mentions a prescription as not found ‘in monument is medicorum.’ As this prescription is given by Scribonius Largus, who wrote about A.D. 47, Celsus must have written before that year. The section on war was used by Vegetius ( De Re Mil. i. 8). Rhetoric was also treated in the encyclopaedia. Quintilian, who mentions him as one of the more careful writers on that subject (iii. 1, 21, ‘accuratius scrips it Celsus’), frequently combats his opinions and speaks of him rather contemptuously: e.g. ix. 1, 18, ‘Cornel i us Celsus nimia profecto nov it at is cupidine duct us. Nam quis ignora e eruditum alioqui virum cred at,’ etc. He may be the Celsus of Juv. 6, 245, who (according to the Scholiast) wrote a manual of rhetoric in seven books. There were also six books on the history of philosophy. Augustine de haeres. prol. , ‘Opiniones omnium philosophorum qui sect as varias condiderunt usque ad tempora sua vi. non parvis voluminibus quidam Celsus absolvit; nec redarguit aliquem, sed tantum quid sent i rent aperuit. Cum fer me centum philosophos no minas set,’ etc. Celsus also wrote separate treatises (1) on philosophy, Quint. x. 1, 24, ‘Scrips it non parum multa Cornel i us Celsus, Sextios secutus, non sine cultu ac nitore’; (2) on strategy (Lydus de mag. i. 47).