Apicius’ ESCULENTS : 167 
The plants mentioned by Apicius were reviewed by Dierbach, 1831, 
in his Flora Apiciana, published at Heidelberg and Leipsic. Among 
these plants are the following : 
“Viola—Apicius 1, 4 (2); an example of the latitude charac- 
teristic of the Roman use of this name (see p. 143, under Dios- 
corides, where it is confused with Aster Atticus) ; Dierbach, 83, 
interprets it here as Viola odorata L., Meyer (2: 248) as Matthiola 
incana or Cheiranthus Cheiri or altogether doubtful. Some o 
Apicius’ other plant names are equally uncertain, as his Ligusticum ; , 
his Praecoguum, perhaps the peach or apricot? his Corona bubula, 
perhaps rue; his Acrilactuca, perhaps Lactuca Scariola or virosa, 
Meyer. 
Helenium, Lactuca, Intubum, Cnicus (safflower), Carduus 
(Cynara Scolymus), Absinthium, Absinthium Ponticum, Pyrethrum 
(Artemisia Dracunculus), are mentioned by Apicius, among the 
Compositae. 
XVI. THEoOpoRuS PRISCIANUS 
Theodorus Priscianus, Roman physician of about 380 AD 
author of an “ Antidotarius,’ and of ‘! De simplict medicina,’ etc., 
was cited in the 6th century by Alexander Trallianus and by 
Aétios, but his writings remained for the next thousand years 
otherwise unknown. They were. finally made known, in 1532, by 
Gelenius and Count Neuenar (Meyer, 2: 286), the latter printing 
them, 1544, and ascribing them to one Octavius Horatianus. 
Theodorus Priscianus is one of the few ancient authorities for 
the name Pulicaria, now used as a genus including Aster dysen- 
tericus of Scopoli, etc. 
Pulicaria first occurs, Dioscorides, 4, 79, aS a Roman name for 
his Psyllion, Plantago Psyllium L., the guisozyoptov of modern 
Greece ; all of its names being due to a reputation for exorcising 
fleas. 
Pulicaria in Theodorus Priscianus occurs twice, and probably 
in the preceding sense. The name does not occur elsewhere, fide 
~ Meyer’s search,* until Theodorus Gaza used it to translate the 
Conyza of Theophrastus 6, 1, the fleabane of ancient and modern 
a 
* Exception should have been made for Isidorus, about 600 A. D., who enumer- 
ates “ Psyllios, quam Latini Aerbam pulicarem vocant. 
