AETIUS  , a

Greek physician, born at Amida in Mesopotamia, flourished at the beginning of the 6th century A.D . He studied at Alexandria, and became court physician at Byzantium and comes obsequii, one of the chief officers of the imperial household . He wrote a large medical work in sixteen books, founded on Oribasius and compiled from various sources, especially Galen [Galenos] . Superstition and mysticism play a great part in his remedies . Eight books of the Greek original were printed at Venice, 1534, and a complete Latin translation by Cornarius appeared at Basel, 1542 . See Weigel, Aetianarum exercitationum specimen (1791) ; Danelius, Beitrag zur Augenheilkunde des Aetius (1889); Zernos, Aetii sermo sextidecimus et ultimus, editio princeps (1901) .