Part 27

παραινεῖ· κοινὰ δὲ ἀνέωκται ἀνδράσιν ὁμοῦ καὶ γυναιξὶ τὰ βαλανεῖα· κἀντεῦθεν ἐπὶ ἀκρασίαν ἀποδύονται· ἐκ τοῦ γὰρ εἰσορᾶν, γίνεται ἀνθρώποις ἐρᾶν· ὥσπερ ἀποκλυζομένης τῆς αἰδοῦς αὐτοῖς κατὰ τὰ λουτρὰ· αἱ δὲ μὴ εἰς τοσοῦτον ἀπερυθριῶσαι, τοὺς μὲν ὀθνείους ἀποκλείουσιν, ἰδίοις δὲ οἰκέταις συλλούονται, καὶ δούλοις ἀποδύονται γυμναὶ, καὶ ἀνατρίβονται ὑπ’ αὐτῶν, ἐξουσίαν δοῦσαι τῷ κατεπτηχότι τῆς ἐπιθυμίας, τὸ ἀδεὲς τῆς ψηλαφήσεως· οἱ γὰρ παρεισαγόμενοι παρὰ τὰ λουτρὰ ταῖς δεσποίναις γυμναῖς, μελέτην ἴσχουσιν ἀποδύσασθαι πρὸς τόλμαν ἐπιθυμίας ἔθει πονηρῷ παραγράφοντες τὸν φόβον. (And of a truth they would not strip before their own husbands, feigning a pretended plausibility of mock-modesty; but for other men, whosoever will, may readily see the women that are so close shut up at home, naked at the Baths. For there they are nowise ashamed to strip before the spectators, looking on like dealers in human flesh; whereas Hesiod (Works and Days, bk. II. 371.) advises “But do not, for the earning of a woman’s price, let her wash her skin bright and clean.” Now the Baths are open for men and women alike. And hence their stripping leads to incontinence; for from seeing, men come to desire, as though their modesty were washed away in the Baths. Other women that have not attained such effrontery, shut out strangers indeed, but wash along with their own house-slaves, and are stripped naked before their servants and are rubbed by them, giving opportunity to the man a-tremble with longing, the free right to handle without fear; for the men that are admitted into the Baths with their naked mistresses take care to strip in such a way as to correspond to the daring audacity of their longing, putting down fear to the count of evil habit).—_Cyprian_, De Virginum habitu: Quid vero, quae promiscuas balneas adeunt, quae oculis ad libidinem curiosis, pudori ac pudicitae dicata corpora prostituunt, quae cum viros ac a viris nudae vident turpiter ac videntur, nonne ipsae illecebram vitiis praestant. (But in truth, those women that frequent indiscrimate Baths, that expose to prying and lustful eyes their bodies that should be dedicate to modest shamefacedness, that along with men see what is disgraceful to see and in nakedness are seen by men, do not such women offer an enticement to sinfulness?) Comp. _Mercurialis_, De arte Gymnast. bk. I. ch. 10.—It is true we read in _Julius Caesar_, De bello Gallico bk. VI. ch. 21., of the ancient Germans: Intra annum vero vicessimum feminae notitiam habuisse, in turpissimis habent rebus; cuius rei nulla est occultatio, quod et _promiscue in fluminibus perluuntur_, (But to have known a woman under the twentieth year is held by them most disgraceful; and there is no concealment of it, as _they bathe indiscriminately in the rivers_); but here the antecedent clause bars any suspicion of sexual excesses having been invited by the practice.

[267] _Seneca_, Epist. 86. says, speaking of the bath of Scipio: Balneolum angustum, tenebricosum ex consuetudine antiqua; non videbatur maioribus nostris caldum nisi obscurum. (A little narrow bath-chamber, dim and gloomy after the antique fashion; our fathers could not believe a bath warm unless it was dark too).—Next he describes explicitly the luxury of the Roman Baths, and then goes on,—In hoc balneo Scipionis minimae sunt rimae magis quam fenestrae, muro lapideo exsectae, ut sine iniuria munimenti lumen admitterent. At nunc _blattaria_ vocant _balnea_, si qua non ita aptata sunt, ut totius diei solem fenestris amplissimis recipiant; nisi et lavantur et colorantur; nisi ex solio agros et maria prospiciant.... Imo si scias, non quotidie lavabatur. Nam ut aiunt, qui priscos mores urbis tradiderunt, brachia et crura quotidie abluebant, quae scilicit sordes opere collegerant: ceterum toti nundinis lavabantur. Hoc loco dicet aliquis, liquet mihi immundissimos fuisse. Quid putas illos oluisse? militiam, laborem, virum. Postquam munda balnea inventa sunt, spurciores sunt. (In this bath of Scipio there are tiny chinks rather than windows, cut through the stone wall, so as to admit light without detriment to the shelter afforded. But nowadays men call them _Baths for night-moths_, any that are not disposed in such a way as to let the sunlight enter all day long by immense windows; if they are not washed and sun-burned at once; if they cannot look out on fields and sea from the pavement.... If you must know the truth, he did not bathe every day. For we are told by those who have handed down accounts of the primitive manners of the City, our ancestors would wash daily arms and legs, for these had grown soiled with the dust of toil: but they washed all over only on market-days. Hearing this, it will be said, “It appears to me they must have very filthy people.” Well! what think you it was they smelt of? Of fighting, and honest work, and manly vigour. Sweet, clean Baths have been introduced; but the population is only more foul). Comp. _Plutarch_, Quaest. convival. VIII. 9. _Sidonius Apollinaris_ bk. II. Epist. 11. _Pliny_, Hist. nat. XXX. 54.

[268] _Ammianus Marcellinus_, XXVIII., Tales, ubi comitantibus singulos quadraginta ministris, tholos introierint balnearum, ubi sunt, minaciter clamantes, si apparuisse subito ignotam compererint meretricem, aut oppidanae quondam prostibulum plebis, vel meritorii corporis veterem lupam, certatim concurrunt, palpantesque ad venam deformitate magna blanditarum ita extollunt, ut Semiramin. (Such men, when with forty servants attending each master they have entered the rotundas of the Baths, where they remain with loud threatening shouts, if they should note an unknown courtesan to have put in an appearance, or some prostitute once popular with the common herd, or some old harlot who has sold her person for years, they strive who shall be first on the spot, and wheedling her to the top of her bent, with mighty exaggeration of flattery, praise her beauty as though she were a Semiramis). _Lampridius_, Life of Heliogabalus ch. 26., Omnes de circo, de theatro, de stadio, de omnibus locis et _balneis_, meretrices collegit in aedes publicam. (All the prostitutes from circus, from theatre, from race-course, from all places and from _the Baths_, he brought together into public establishments). Comp. _Suetonius_, Caligula ch. 37.

[269] Martial, bk. I. Epigr. 24.,

Invitae nullum, nisi cum quo, Cotta, lavaris, Et dant convivam balnea sola tibi. Mirabar, quare nunquam me, Cotta, vocasses. Iam scio, me nudum displicuisse tibi.

(You invite no man, Cotta, but your bathing companion; the Baths only supply a guest for you. I used to wonder, why you had never asked me; now I know that you did not like the look of me when naked). Comp. _Martial_, Bk. I. 97. bk. VII. 33. bk. IX. 34. _Juvenal_, Sat. VI. 373.

[270] It must be left to future investigation to decide, whether the great number of _phalli_ found in so many places where Temples formerly existed, is not in part to be explained by supposing these figures to have formed thank-offerings for the happy recovery of the corresponding parts from sickness.

[271] _Oppenheim_, Ueber den Zustand der Heilkunde in der Türkei, (On the Condition of of Medical Knowledge in Turkey), p. 81., “Without the very great cleanliness of the Turks, who after every occasion of sexual intercourse not only wash carefully, but also wherever it is possible go to the bath likewise, the disease would undoubtedly be yet more widely spread than it is.... Yet the Turk will never admit, or rather he simply cannot bring himself to conceive, that he has contracted an infection through unclean cohabitation, but will be found always to give some other cause as occasioning his sickness. In fact the language itself shows this; the Turkish expression for gonorrhœa is “_Belzouk_”, literally: chill of the back (from _bel_, back and _zouk_, cold), and chill or overheating will always be represented as having brought it on.”—Moreover _Zeller von Zellenberg_, Abh. über die ersten Erscheinungen venerischer Lokal-Krankheitsformen und deren Behandlung, (Dissertation on the earliest Appearances of Forms of Local Venereal Disease, and their Treatment), Vienna 1810., p. 7., is of the opinion, that the reason of the imperfect knowledge possessed by the Ancients of gonorrhœa, chancre and buboes is to be found in this delayed appearance of the symptoms of disease after coition.

[272] We see this in the clearest possible way from the passage of _Herodotus_, bk. I. ch. 9, 10., where Candaules wishes to induce Gyges to see his wife naked, in order to convince him of her beauty, but the latter objects: ἅμα δὲ κιθῶνι ἐκδυομένῳ συνεκδύεται καὶ τὴν αἰδῶ γυνή· πάλαι δὲ τὰ καλὰ ἀνθρώποισι ἐξεύρηται, ἐκ τῶν μανθάνειν δεῖ· (but when she strips off her tunic, a woman strips off therewith her modesty likewise; now mankind have long ago ascertained what is honourable, and from this we must learn how to act). Then Herodotus adds to this further (ch. 10.), παρὰ γὰρ τοῖσι Λυδοῖσι, σχεδὸν δὲ παρὰ τοῖσι ἄλλοισι βαρβάροισι, καὶ ἄνδρα ὀφθῆναι γυμνὸν, ἐς αἰσχύνην μεγάλην φέρει· (for among the Lydians, as indeed among pretty nearly all Barbarians, for a person to be seen naked is counted for the greatest disgrace). Comp. _Plutarch_, De audiend. rat. p. 37. _Diogenes Laertius_, VIII. 43. _Plato_, Politics V. 6. p. 457. A., V. 3. p. 452., Οὐ πολὺς χρόνος, ἐξ οὗ τοῖς Ἕλλησιν ἐδόκει αἰσχρὰ εἶναι καὶ γέλοια, ἅπερ νῦν τοῖς πολλοῖς τῶν βαρβάρων, γυμνοὺς ἄνδρας ὁρᾶσθαι. (It is no long time since it appeared to the Greeks, as it does still to most of the Barbarian peoples, shameful and ridiculous for men to be seen naked). In reference to the genital organs _Hesiod_ says (Works and Days 733.):

μηδ’ αἰδοῖα γονῇ πεπαλαγμένος ἔνδοθι οἴκου ἑστίῃ ἐμπελαδὸν παραφαινέμεν, ἀλλ’ ἀλέασθαι·

(Nor yet when done with generation, within the house hard by the hearth expose the privates, but retire aside). St. Augustine, De civit. dei bk. XIV., Omnes gentes adeo tenent in usu pudenda velare, ut quidam barbari illas corporis partes nec in balneis undas habeant. (All nations in fact make it a habit to cover the privates, so much so that some Barbarians do not expose the parts of the body naked even in the Baths). _St. Ambrose_, Offic. I. 18., Licet plerique se et in lavacro, quantum possunt, tegant, ut vel illic, ubi nudum totum est corpus, huius modi intecta portio sit. (Most men may also cover themselves, as much as they can, even in the Bath, so that even there, where the whole body is naked, a part may so be hidden). _Arnobius_, bk. V., Propudiosa corporum monstratur obscoenitas, obiectanturque partes illae, quas pudor communis abscondere, quas naturalis verecundiae lex iubet, quas inter aures castas sine venia nefas est ac sine honoribus apellare praefatis. (The foulest abomination of men’s bodies is exhibited, and those parts exposed, which common modesty, the natural law of shamefacedness, bids us conceal, which among ears polite it is forbidden to name without asking pardon and making a preface of apologies).—bk. III., Insignire his partibus, quas enumerare, quas persequi probus audeat nemo, nec sine summae foeditatis horrore mentis imaginatione concipere. (To parade those parts, which no honourable man dare name or describe, nor even without a shudder at such a height of foulness conceive a mental picture of). Comp. p. 42. and _Oppenheim_, loco citato p. 128., who undoubtedly ranks the importance of the vice of paederastia too high, when he finds in it the main reason for the feeling of shame prevalent among the Turks.

[273] _Aristophanes_, Wasps 578., παίδων τοίνυν δοκιμαζομένων αἰδοῖα πάρεστι θεᾶσθαι. (Yet when boys are under test, men may see their privates). Comp. _Athenaeus_, Deipnos. bk. XII. p. 550. Petit, Ad legg. Attic. p. 227. At Rome likewise in cases of marriage disputes the men were obliged to offer their genital organs for examination (_Quintilian_, Declam. 279.), a Law which was only revoked by Justinian. Comp. _Gundlingiana_ No. 23. pp. 342 sqq. We learn from _Plato_, Theaetet. 151., ποίαν χρῆ ποίῳ ἀνδρὶ συνοῦσαν ὡς ἀρίστους παῖδας τίκτειν, (what sort of maid must mate with what sort of man to produce as fine children as may be), that the marriageable girls were examined by the midwives,—a procedure that Plato wished to see universally introduced in his ideal State (De legg. bk. XII.). But against this _Theodoretus_, Contra Graecos bk. IX., declaims vigorously.

[274] In any case it is an error to suppose that by this it is implied that the maidens and young men were absolutely naked. They were merely μονόπεπλοι (single-frocked), clothed in a single short frock, slit up at the hips, for which reason they were also known by the name φαινομηρίδες (showing the thighs) (_Pollux_, Onomastic. VII. 55.), a costume which was pretty much the general Doric one; thus _Moeris_ says δωριάζειν τὸ παραγυμνοῦσθαί τινα μέρη, (to follow Dorian fashions, to expose certain parts). Comp. _Meursius_, Laconic. bk. I. end. _K. O. Müller_, The Dorians, IInd. Part pp. 263, 265. _Josephus_, De special. legg., Works, Vol. II. p. 328. The meaning of γυμνὸς is nothing more than “lightly clad”, in mere underclothing, without outer cloak. So _Eubulus_, (Athenaeus bk. XIII. p. 568.) says, speaking of the brothel-girls, γυμνάς—ἐν λεπτονήτοις ὑμέσιν ἑστωτας (standing “naked”—in light-spun garments). _Aelian_, Var. hist. XIII. 37., ἐν χιτωνίσκῳ γυμνὸς, (“naked” in a tunic). Similarly _nudus_ (naked) in Latin, as _Cuper_ (Observat. bk. I. ch. 7.) long ago pointed out, often has no other meaning, but merely stands for _tunicatus_ (clad in the tunic), in tunic only, without cloak or toga. We see this very clearly in _Petronius_, Satir. 55., Aequum est induere nuptam ventum textilem,—Palam prostare nudam in nebula linea. (’Tis right a bride should put on woven wind,—that she should stand openly for sale, “naked” in a linen cloud!) In precisely the same way the Jews use their word עָרֹם (arôm), Isaiah Ch. XX. 2., Job Ch. XXIV. 7. 10. I Samuel ch. XIX. 24., and the Arabs مسلوخ (mesluch).

[275] _Plato_, Republic, bk. II. p. 405. The Speech of _Lysias_ Ὑπὲρ Φανίου contains a passage, preserved for us by _Athenaeus_, bk. XII. p. 552., in which these principles are expressed in Court, to induce the Judges to condemn the dissolute Cinesias: τοῦτον δὲ τὸν ὑπὸ πλείστων γινωσκόμενον οἱ θεοὶ οὕτως διέθεσαν, ὥστε τοὺς ἐχθροὺς αὐτοῦ βούλεσθαι ζῆν μᾶλλον ἢ τεθνάναι, παράδειγμα τοῖς ἄλλοις, ἵν’ ἴδωσιν ὅτι τοῖς ἄλλοις ὑβριστικῶς πρὸς τὰ θεῖα διακειμένοις, οὐκ εἰς τοὺς παῖδας ἀποτίθενται τὰς τιμωρίας, ἀλλ’ αὐτοὺς κακῶς ἀπολύουσι, μείζους καὶ χαλεπωτέρας, καὶ τὰς νόσους, ἢ τοῖς ἄλλοις ἀνθρώποις, προσβάλλοντες· τὸ μὲν γὰρ ἀποθανεῖν ἢ καμεῖν νομίμως κοινὸν ἅπασιν ὑμῖν ἐστίν· τὸ δ’ οὕτως ἔχοντα τοσοῦτον χρόνον διατελεῖν, καὶ καθ’ ἑκάστην ἡμέραν ἀποθνήσκοντα μὴ δύνασθαι τελευτῆσαι τὸν βίον, τούτοις μόνοις, προσήκει τοῖς τὰ τοιαῦτα, ἅπερ οὗτος, ἐξημαρτηκόσιν. (But this man, who is known to most of you, the gods have brought to such a pass that his enemies may well wish him to live rather than die, to be an example to other men, showing them that where men’s conduct is too violently overbearing towards the gods, these do not inflict punishments on their children, but pay them out in person with misfortunes, bringing down on them calamities and diseases greater and more severe than fall to the lot of others. For death and sickness are admittedly common to all of you; but to continue so long in such a condition, and dying every day, yet not be able to have done with his life, this is the fate only of men who have committed such evil deeds as he has). Again, the Taxili, an Indian people, regarded any bodily sickness as disgraceful, and on its appearance gave themselves to the fire; αἴσχιστον δ’ αὐτοῖς νομίζεσθαι νόσον σωματικήν· τὸν δ’ ὑπονοήσαντα καθ’ αὑτοῦ τοῦτο ἐξάγειν ἑαυτὸν διὰ πυρὸς νήσαντα πυράν, (But they hold a bodily disease to be most disgraceful; and the man who has formed a suspicion of the existence of such in himself, goes through the fire, after making a funeral pyre) says _Strabo_, Geograph. bk. XV. p. 716. 65. We should compare with this the suicide of Festus spoken of above and of the “Municeps” _Pliny_ tells of.

[276] _Aretaeus_, De caus. et sign. chron. morb. (On the Causes and Symptoms of Chronic Diseases), bk. II. ch. 5., says indeed explicitly of gonorrhœa: ἀνώλεθρον μὲν ἡ γονόῤῥοια, _ἀτερπὲς δὲ καὶ ἀηδὲς μέσφι ἀκοῆς_, (Gonorrhœa is not indeed a dangerous complaint, but it is one that is hateful and abominable of repute).

[277] _Martial_, bk. VI. Epigr. 31.,

Uxorem, Charideme, tuam scis ipse sinisque _A medico futui_. Vis sine febre mori!

(Your wife, Charidemus, you know _to be entered by the doctor_ of your own knowledge, and suffer it. You are fain to die without a fever!) Similar instances occurred equally in the time of Hippocrates, as we gather from the oath, in which stands the clause: εἰς οἰκίας δὲ ὁκόσας ἂν ἐσίω, ἐσελεύσομαι ἐπ’ ὠφελείῃ καμνόντων, ἐκτὸς ἐὼν πάσης ἀδικίης ἑκουσίης καὶ φθορίης τῆς τε ἄλλης, καὶ _ἀφροδισίων ἔργων, ἐπί τε γυναικείων σωμάτων καὶ ἀνθρώπων ἐλευθέρων τε καὶ δούλων_. (Also into whatsoever houses I enter, I will go in there for the succour of sick persons, devoid of all voluntary offence and all evil-doing, and above all of all amorous practices, whether on the persons of women or free men or slaves). At the same time we learn from this document, that even then paederastia was wide-spread enough already, and that physicians were actually not ashamed to abuse their patients in this, as in other vicious ways! Undoubtedly it is from no other reason that the Turk at this very moment will rather expire than allow a clyster to be administered to him.

[278] _Martial_, bk. II. Epigr. 40.,

Omnes Tongilium medici iussere lavari, O stulti! febrem creditis esse? gula est.

(All the doctors ordered Tongilius to bathe; fools! think you it is a fever? it is gluttony that is the matter). Comp. bk. XI. Epigr. 87.

[279] _Galen_, Method. medendi, bk. VIII. ch. 6., edit. Kühn Vol. X. p. 580., σχεδὸν εἴρηταί μοι πάντα περὶ τῶν ἐφημέρων πυρετῶν· οἱ γὰρ ἐπὶ βουβῶσι πυρέξαντες οὐδὲ πυνθάνονται τῶν ἰατρῶν ὅ τι χρὴ ποιεῖν· ἀλλὰ τοῦθ’ ἕλκους ἐφ’ ᾧπερ ἂν ὁ βουβὼν αὐτοῖς εἴη γεγεννημένος, αὐτοῦ τε τοῦ βουβῶνος προνοησάμενοι, λούονται κατὰ τὴν παρακμὴν τοῦ γενομένου κ. τ. λ. (for translation see text above). The _Diatriton_ mentioned in the next sentence was the fast till the third day, which was generally prescribed by _Thessalus_ and the _methodic_ school. For this reason it was called διάτριτον θεσσαλείον (Thessalus’ _diatriton_), and the physicians who held to it διατριτάριοι ἰατροὶ (doctors of the _diatriton_), as we gather from the subsequent statement of _Galen_. Of the ephemera in case of buboes _Galen_ also speaks, ad Glauconem meth. med. bk. I. ch. 2., edit. Kühn Vol. XI. p. 6., καὶ οἱ ἐπὶ βουβῶσι δὲ πυρετοὶ τούτου τοῦ γένους εἰσὶ, πλὴν εἰ μὴ χωρὶς ἕλκους φανεροῦ γένοιντο, (Moreover the fevers that follow on buboes are of this kind, the exception being if they have not been without open ulceration). _Celsus_ moreover, De re med. bk. VI. ch. 18., says à propos of diseases of the genitals, that he means to undertake their description, quia in vulgus eorum curatio praecipue cognoscenda est, quae invitissimus quisque alteri ostendit, (because a general acquaintance is particularly desirable with the means of curing such complaints as every man is most reluctant to make known to another).

[280] _Galen_, Meth. med., bk. XIII. ch. 5. p. 881., οὕτως οὖν καὶ δι’ ἕλκος ἐν δακτύλῳ γινόμενον ἤτοι ποδὸς ἢ χειρὸς οἱ κατὰ τὸν βουβῶνα καὶ τὴν μασχάλην ἀδένες ἐξαίρονταί τε καὶ φλεγμαίνουσι, τοῦ καταῤῥέοντος ἐπ’ ἄκρον τὸν κῶλον αἵματος ἀπολαβόντες πρῶτοι· καὶ κατὰ τράχηλον δὲ καὶ παρ’ ὦτα πολλάκις ἐξῄρθησαν ἀδένες, ἑλκῶν γενομένων ἤτοι κατὰ τὴν κεφαλὴν ἢ τὸν τράχηλον ἤ τι τῶν πλησίων μορίων· ὀνομάζουσι δὲ τοὺς οὕτως ἐξαρθέντας ἀδένας βουβῶνας. (Thus then in consequence of an ulcer that has formed in a finger or toe the glands of the groin and the arm-pit become swollen and inflamed, having been the first to receive back the blood that flows down to the extremity of the limb. Moreover on the neck and about the ears glands are frequently swollen, when ulcers have been set up in the head or neck or any of the neighbouring parts. And glands swollen up in this way are known as buboes).

[281] Hippocratic Oath, in _Hippocrates_, Vol. I. p. 2., ἃ δ’ ἂν ἐν θεραπείῃ ἢ ἴδω ἢ ἀκούσω, ἢ καὶ ἄνευ θεραπείης, κατὰ βίον ἀνθρώπων, ἃ μὴ χρή ποτε ἐκκαλέεσθαι ἔξω, σιγήσομαι, ἄῤῥητα ἡγεύμενος εἶναι τὰ τοιαῦτα. (and whatsoever I may see or hear in my practice, or even apart from practice, connected with men’s life, what ought not in any case to be revealed, this I will say nought of, holding such secrets inviolable).

[282] _Hippocrates_, De locis in homine, edit. Kühn Vol. II. p. 139.

[283] _Galen_, Method. medendi bk. IV. ch. 2., edit. Kühn Vol. X. p. 238.

[284] _Oppenheim_, loco citato p. 123. The Eastern Christian woman in question actually assured Niebuhr herself that she would never agree to the knife being applied to her husband’s genitals, and yet in this case it was merely a question of dividing an over short _frenulum_. _Michaelis_, “Mosaisches Recht”, (Mosaic Law), Vol. IV. p. 3.

[285] Examples of such are at any rate plentiful in _Martial_, e. g. bk. XI. Epigr. 75.,

Curandum penem commisit Bacchara Graecus Rivali medico: Bacchara Gallus erit.

(Bacchara entrusted the cure of his member to a rival doctor: Bacchara was a Greek, he will now be a Gaul,—“Gallus”, castrated Priest of Cybelé).

bk. II. Epigr. 46.,

Quae tibi non stabat, praecisa est mentula, Glypte. Demens, cum ferro quid tibi? Gallus eras.

(Your member, Glyptus, that you could never get to stand erect, has been cut. Fool,—why! what had you to do with the knife? You were a “Gallus” already).

bk. III. Epigr. 81.,

Abscissa est quare Samia tibi mentula testa, Si tibi tam gratus, Baetice, cunnus erat?

(Why has your member been cut with a Samian potsherd, if the female organ, Baeticus, was so dear to you)?

[286] _Scribonius Largus_, De compos. medicam. edit. Bernhold, Strasburg 1786., p. 2., writes in his Introduction to the Callistus: Siquidem verum est, antiquos herbis ac radicibus eorum corporis vitia curasse: quia etiam tunc genus mortalium _inter initia non facile se ferro committebat_. Quod etiam nunc plerique faciunt, ne dicam omnes; et, nisi magna compulsi necessitate speque ipsius salutis, non patiunter sibi fieri, quae sane vix sunt toleranda. (If in fact it is true that the Ancients cured the diseases of their bodies by means of herbs and roots: for even then the race of mortals _at the beginning did not readily entrust its cure to the knife_. And this is what even now the most part do; and, unless constrained by a sore need and by the hope of actual recovery, do not suffer operations to be performed on them, which in very deed are hardly to be endured).

[287] _Galen_, Method. medendi bk. IV. ch. 1., edit. Kühn Vol. X. p. 233.

[288] _Hippocrates_, Coact. praenot., edit. Kühn Vol. I. p. 343., τὰ ἑρπηστικὰ ὑπεράνω βουβῶνος πρὸς κενεῶνα καὶ ἥβην γινόμενα, σημαίνει κοιλίην πονηρευομένην. (Spreading eruptions that appear above the groin towards the flank and pubes point to an evil condition of stomach).

[289] _Galen_, Method. medendi bk. IV. ch. 3., edit. Kühn Vol. X. pp. 243 sqq.

[290] Hence _Hensler_ is quite right in saying as he does (History of Venereal Disease Vol. I. p. 298.): “It is extraordinary that a precision should have been demanded on the part of the Ancients, which they could not possibly possess, such indeed as cannot be expected in any disease during its childhood. As to requiring them to have announced the cause of the evil with certainty and clearness, this is always only the result of time and reiterated experience.”