A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

CELSUS.
effort of the constitution to throw off some morbid
cause, and that, if not unduly interfered with, the
process would terminate in a state of health. We
here see the germ of the doctrine of the " vis medicatrix Naturae," which has had so much influence
over the practice of the most enlightened physicians
of modern times, and which, although erroneous,
hlas perhaps led to a less hazardous practice than
the hypotheses which have been substituted in its
room.
But perhaps the most curious and interesting
parts of the work of Celsus are those which treat
of Surgery and surgical operations, of which some
account is given in the Diet. ofAnt. art. Chirurgia.
It is very remarkable that he is almost the first
writer who professedly treats on these topics, and
yet his descriptions of the diseases and of their
treatment prove that the art had attained to a,very considerable degree of perfection. Many of
what are termed the " capital" operations seem to
have been well understood and frequently practised,
and it may be safely asserted, that the state of
Surgery at the time when Celsus wrote, was comparatively much more advanced than that of
Medicine. The Pharmacy of Celsus forms another curious and interesting part of his work, and,
like his Surgery, marks a state of considerable
improvement in this branch of the art. Many of
'his formulae are well arranged and efficacious, and,
'on the whole, they may be said to be more correct
and even more scientific than the multifarious
compounds which were afterwards introduced into
-practice, and which were not completely discarded
until our own times. The style of Celsus has been
much admired, and it is in fact equal in purity and
elegance to that of the best writers of the Augustan
age. This is probably one of the chief reasons of
his work having been chosen as a text-book in
modern times; but it would be great injustice to
suppose that this is its only merit, or that it contains nothing but a judicious and well-arranged
abstract of what had been said by his predecessors.
Some instances of his lax and inaccurate use of
certain anatomical terms are mentioned in the
Diet. of Ant. art. Phlysiologia; but his anatomical
and physiological knowledge does not appear to
have been at all inferior to that of his contemporaries. In many passages of his work he follows
Hippocrates, especially when treating of the
general symptoms and phaenomena of diseases;
and occasionally we meet with sentences literally
translated from the Greek. He does not, however,
by any means blindly embrace his doctrines, and
differs from him occasionally both in theory and
practice.
The work of Celsus, entitled De Mledicina
Libri Octo, has been published very often; Choulant mentions four editions in the fifteenth century, fifteen in the sixteenth, five in the seventeenth, thirteen in the eighteenth, and twelve
in the first thirty-five years of the nineteenth.
The first edition was published at Florence,
1478, small fol., edited by Barthol. Fontius: it is
said to be very scarce, and is described by
Dibden in his Biblioth. Spencer. i. 303. Perhaps
the other editions that best deserve to be noticed
are those by Van der Linden, Lugd. Bat. 1657,
12mo.; Almeloveen, Amstel. 1687, 12mo. (which
was several times reprinted); Targa, Patav. 1769,
4to. (whose text has been the basis of most
subsequent editions); Lugd. Bat. 1785, 4to.;,CELSUS. 661
Argent. 1806, 8vo. 2 vols.; and Milligan, Edinb.
18'26, 8vo. The latest edition mentioned by
Choulant is that by F. Ritter and H. Albers,
Colon. ad Rhen. 1835, 12mo. The work has
been translated into English, French, Italian, and
German. The English translations appear to be
chiefly made for the use of medical students in
London who are preparing for their examination
at Apothecaries' Hall, and are not very good. A
great number of works have been published on
Celsus and his writings, which are enumerated by
Choulant, but which cannot be mentioned here.
Further particulars respecting his medical opinions.may be found in Le Clerc's Hist. de la Mid.;
Haller's Biblioth. Medic. Pract. vol. i.; Sprengel's
Hist. de la Mid. vol. ii. See also Bostock's Hist.
of Med., and Choulant's iHancduch der Bucherkunde fiir d(lieAeltere Medicin, Leipz. 1840, 8vo.,
from which works the greater part of the preceding
account has been taken. [W. A. G.]
CELSUS, JU'LIUS, a tribune of the citycohort, was condemned to death under Tiberius,
and broke his own neck in prison by means of the
chains with which he was fettered, in order to
escape the disgrace of a public execution. (Tac.
Ann. vi. 9, 14.)
CELSUS, JU'LIUS, a scholar at Constantinople in the seventh century after Christ, who
made a recension of the text of Caesar's Commentaries, whence we find subjoined to many MSS. of
Caesar, Julius Celsus Vir Clarissimus et Comes
recensui, or Julius Celsus Constantinus V. C. legi.
Many modern writers, indeed, have maintained
that Celsus was the author of these commentaries,
and still more have attributed to him the works
on the Spanish and African wars; but the former
supposition is ridiculous, and the latter destitute of proof. Julius Celsus has been usually
regarded as the author of the life of Caesar, which
has been frequently printed with the editions of
Caesar's Commentaries under the title of Julii
Celsi Commentarii de 'Vita Caesaris; but this work
has been proved by C. E. Ch. Schneider (Petrarchae, Historia Julii Caesaris, Lips. 1827) to be a
work of Petrarch's. There is a dissertation on
Julius Celsus by Dodwell, appended to hisAnnales
Quinctilianez et Statiani, Oxon. 1698.
CELSUS, JUVE'NTIUS, a Roman jurist,
who flourished, as Majansius and Heineccius have
clearly shewn, in the second half of the first century of the Christian aera. He succeeded Pegasus,
the follower of Proculus, and was himself succeeded
by Celsus, the son, and Neratius Priscus. (Dig.
1. tit. 2. s. 2. ~ 47.) He belonged (at least on
one occasion) to the consilium of the consul Ducenus Verus, who was probably a consul suffectus,
and is nowhere named except in Dig. 31. s. 29.
The numerous attempts of learned men to identify
Ducenus with recorded consuls are without ground,
and most of their conjectures refer to too late a
period, unless Celsus the father attained to an unusual age. Thus Wieling (Jusrisprudentia Restitute, p. 351) and Guil. Grotius (De Vitis Jurisp.
ii. c. 2. ~ 2) make Ducenus the same as L. Cejonius
Commodus Verus, who was consul A. D. 106.
Others are for L. Annius Verus, consul A. D. 121.
Ant. Augustinus (De Nominibius Propriis Pandeetarum, c. 3, p. 259, n. [g.]) seems to think he
might have been the Juventius Verus, who was
consul for the third time A. D. 134. Heineccius
(Hist. Jur, Civ. ~ 241, n.) is for Decennius Gemn