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166 Aster History; SAMMONICUS 
The real confusion shows first in Serenus Sammonicus, Roman 
medical poet of about 210 A. D. who in writing of his Chelidonia 
attributes to it not only the power of relieving films and also the 
king’s evil, but other properties still more characteristic of Aster, 
as ‘‘the power of healing ulcers or other troubles of the groin,” for 
which purpose his verses* recommend its use together with 
yarrow, saying 
Herba chelidonia fertur cum melle meaeri, 
Herbaque cum seuo foliis de mille vocata. + 
It is doubtful how soon another Latin medical work perpetu- 
ated these ideas; the verses of Macer Floridus and the school of 
Salerno repeat Pliny but not Sammonicus ; perhaps the first echo 
of Sammonicus is in Arnald de Villanova, t about 1310 A. D, 
who prescribed Chelidonia with anise in white wine § for ulcers as 
well as for the king’s evil. 
XV. Apicius COELIUs ° 
Apicius Coelius, perhaps 250 A. D., was author of the most 
ancient Latin cookbook, De Opsonits, first mentioned by Enoch As- 
culanus, 1454, first printed 1498 at Milan, edited by Lister, Am- 
sterdam, 1709, by Bernhold, 1787. His editor, Lister, from certain 
comparisons of his use of the word Garum for a spice (the Garam 
of the Geoponica), deems him a contemporary of the Emperor Va- 
lerian, 253 A. D., and a native of the Roman province of Africa. 
*Q. Serénus Sammonicus (Samonicus of some MSS.), a man of taste and culture, 
founder of a magnificent library of 62,000 volumes, the friend and literary mentor of Geta 
(son of Septimius Severus and, with his brother Caracalla, joint ruler of Rome, 211-212). 
Geta is said to have studied Sammonicus’ compositions ‘* with great enjoyment.” When 
Caracalla succeeded, after many failures, in assassinating his brother, the death of Sam- 
monicus was at once ordered also and the poet was murdered while at his suppet A.D. 
212, His son of the same name was preceptor to the younger Gordian (emperor of 
who fell in battle A. D. 237) and bequeathed to this Gordian the library which his 
had accumulated. 
tQ. Serenus Sammonicus, Liber Medicinalis, lines 693-4 (and see line 764 for 
Chelidonia recommended for ‘‘igni sacro’’) in Bahren’s Poetae Latini Minores, 3+ = 
This poem is of 1115 hexameters, mentioning 120 plants, ‘‘ with a considerable amount 
of information on natural history and the healing art mixed up with a number of puerile 
Superstitions, and in almost prosaic language.”’ 
t Sylvius’ Schola Salernitana (with Exegesis by Arnald de Villanova), 306. dice 
@ Macer had prescribed it similarly with anise-root in white wine, but for jaue 
not for ulcers. i. 
Rome 
father 
