Quintus Gargilius Martialis

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Quintus Gargilius Martialis was a Roman writer . He lived in the 3rd century and studied botanical , agricultural, and medical subjects.

Possible life testimonies

Quintus Gargilius Martialis is mentioned in two inscriptions and in three manuscripts of late antiquity . However, these do not necessarily have to refer to the author of the traditional specialist publications.
In the province of Mauretania Caesariensis there is an inscription from the year 260 for the Roman knight Q. Gargilius Martialis. Numerous civil and military offices and successes are listed:
... eius virtute ac vigilantia Faraxen rebellis cum stellitibus suis fuerit captus et interfectus
(translation: "... through his bravery and vigilance the insurgent Faraxen was captured and executed with his followers" ).
In the Historia Augusta a biographer of Alexander Severus is mentioned by this name.
Cassiodorus knew the writings of Quintus Gargilius Martialis and recommended them for study by the monks responsible for gardening. He valued her very much and placed her on a par with the writings of Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella and Palladius .

Works

Three larger fragments are preserved:

  • Curae boum - remedies for cattle

and two fragments from his work, presumably entitled De hortis

  • De arboribus pomiferis - From fruit-bearing trees
  • Medicinae ex oleribus et pomis - remedies made from vegetables and fruits

Curae boum

The fragment has only survived in a single manuscript from the 16th century, the Codex Leidensis Vossianus F 71 . The authorship is controversial. These are recipes for large animals used in agriculture, especially oxen. The prescriptions are arranged according to symptoms, from general weakness to symptoms such as runny nose or intestinal pain. A system of diseases cannot be identified.
The majority of medicines are made from vegetable substances, such as garlic or anise , that are dissolved in wine or fat. But there are also some recipes from the dirty pharmacy and magical practices. The 23 recipes prove the continuity of knowledge in antiquity. Some recipes are rooted in De agri cultura Cato the Elder . The recipe (3)
Boves si aegrotare coeperint, dato continuo ovum gallinacium, quod crudum integro facito ut devoret
can be found almost word for word in Cato:
Bos si aegrotare coeperit, dato continuo ei unum ovum gallinaceum crudum; integrum facito devoret .
Both can be freely translated:
When a cow starts to get sick, let it swallow a whole, raw chicken egg .

De arboribus pomiferis

Different, overlapping texts have survived in 10 manuscripts from the 6th century (Neapolitanus A.IV.8) to the 15th century (Florentinus Aedilium 165). In 1828 Angelo Mai edited an edition. In 1978 Innocenzo Mazzini published an edition with the trees: Cydoneia (= quince ), Persica (= peach ), Amygdala (= almond ) and Castanea (= chestnut ).
Mainly the methods of tree cultivation are dealt with, to a lesser extent the general requirements of trees and the storage of fruits.
It is described in detail how the fruits or kernels of the fruits are treated, put into the ground, fertilized with manure, watered etc. The correct planting time, indicated by the name of the month, but also by events such as the sinking of the Vergiliae , the beginning of the Favonius is discussed. Various types of grafting are also known.
Gargilius Martialis names numerous sources. The most commonly cited are Mago , Columella, Aulus Cornelius Celsus, and Pliny the Elder . He quotes - as far as this is verifiable due to preserved sources - very precisely. In Columella
amygdala si parum ferax erit, forata arbore lapidem adigito et ita librum arboris inolescere sinito
Gargilius Martialis explains (233):
si ferax non erit… Qidam radicibus perforabis silicem adiciunt et ita arboris librum patiuntur inolescere .
Both can be freely reproduced:
If an almond tree does not produce enough fruit, you drill a hole in its trunk, insert a stone and let the tree bark grow over it .

Medicinae ex oleribus et pomis

16 fragments from the 6th century (Neapolitanus A IV 8) to the 16th century (Vindebonensis Ser. N. 2623), which overlap, have been preserved. In some manuscripts the text with the statement: explicit liber tertius phisice plinij secundi incipunt capitula libri quarti ... is added to the 3 books of the Physica Plinii . The text was therefore long considered the 4th book of the Physica Plinii .
It is a collection of medicinal recommendations and recipes based on garden plants and fruit-bearing trees. The text is divided into 39 chapters, dedicated to a plant and 21 chapters dedicated to a tree. The useful garden plants include vegetables (e.g. asparagus ) and spices (e.g. coriander ), but contain only a part of the garden plants handed down by other ancient writers - also as medicinal products. The trees probably include all of the fruit-bearing trees known at the time, including pears, apples, chestnuts and cherries. Recipes with multiple ingredients and quantities are the exception, however, often general information:
Matrici utilissimus cibus est (XVII)
this food is the uterus very useful
to pharmaceutical technology is mainly used vinegar, wine and honey.
The reasons for using a plant range from strengthening (XXVIII):
nullum athletarum cibum sine anetho
no nutrition for athletes without dill
cosmetics (baldness, I), through painful conditions to fatal diseases ( jaundice , VII). The ailment to be treated is sometimes specified directly (dog bite (XVI), cough (I)), sometimes only the body organ suffering is mentioned ( iocineris iniuriae (XXV) = problems with the liver). The focus of the ailments treated is in the stomach / intestinal area, which is denoted by the Greek loan words stomachus = stomach and aluum = stomach, but also with the Latin uenter = stomach. Many plants are recommended for a surprising number and variety of ailments. Fennel (XXV) is said to be good for the intestines, lungs, liver, against stones, increase the milk of breastfeeding women and much more.
The book is a collection of the works of several Latin and Greek authors. Most of the information can be found in Pliny the Elder, Naturalis historia , Book XX and XXIII, but much also in Pedanios Dioscurides and Galenos . Gargilius Martialis mentions these frequently, and also other authors.

reception

The books of Gargilius Martialis continued to be read and used in late antiquity. Citations of the recipes can still be found in the late 4th century in P. Vegetius Renatus . Palladius mentions him thirteen times in his book on agriculture. Gargilius Martialis is one of his main sources. This also results from text comparisons. In the German Macer (13th century) 7 chapters from the "Medicina ex oleribus et pomis" of Gargilius Martialis were completely taken over.

Text output

  • Gargilius Martialis: Curae boum ex corpore Gargili Martialis . Edidit Ernestus Lommatzsch, Leipzig 1903
  • Gargilius Martialis: Les remèdes tirés des légumes et des fruits . Text établi, traduit et commenté par Brigitte Maire, Paris 2002 (with a detailed introduction to life and work)
  • Martialis: De oleribus Martialis and the medical literature of the sixth century . Valentin Rose in: Anecdota Graeca et Graecolatina , second issue, Berlin 1870
  • Quintus Gargilius Martialis: Medicinae ex oleribus et pomis in Plinii secundi quae fertur una cum Gargilii Martialis medicina. Nunc primum edita , edited by Valentin Rose, Leipzig 1875
  • Q. Gargilius Martialis: De hortis . A cura di Innocenzo Mazzini, Bologna 1978

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ CIL 8, 9047 .
  2. ↑ Historia Augusta , Alexander Severus 37.
  3. ^ Cassiodorus, Institutiones divinarum et saecularium litterarum 1,28,6.
  4. ↑ Wolfgang Wegner: Gargilius Martialis. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 457.
  5. ↑ Gargilius Martialis, Les remèdes tirés des légumes et des fruits , ed. by Brigitte Maire, S. XVIII.
  6. ↑ Cato, De agri cultura LXXX.
  7. ^ Gargilius Martialis, Les remèdes tirés des légumes et des fruits , Brigitte Maire, Introduction p. LXVIII.
  8. ↑ Columella , De re rustica 5,10,20.
  9. ^ Gargilius Martialis, Les remèdes tirés des légumes et des fruits , Brigitte Maire, Introduction S. LXVIII u. LXXXV.
  10. ↑ Ernestus Lommatzsch, footnotes to Curae boum ex corpore Gargili Martialis .
  11. ^ Marco Johannes Bartoldus: Palladius Rutilius Taurus Aemilianus. World and value of late Roman agriculture , Augsburg 2012, p. 56.
  12. ^ Bernhard Schnell, William Crossgrove: The German "Macer". Vulgate version. Niemeyer, Tübingen 2003, ISBN 3-484-36050-X , pp. 11, 481-483.
personal data
SURNAME Gargilius Martialis, Quintus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman writer
DATE OF BIRTH 2nd century or 3rd century
DATE OF DEATH 3rd century