The Shelves · Medicine
On the Virtues of Plants (letter to an emperor)
Περὶ βοτανῶν
◇ Doubted: the attribution is disputed; the attribution is uncertain. The author calls himself Thessalus; whether he is the Neronian physician Thessalus of Tralles is unproven.
I · The entry, in his form
In the table of Medicine: “astrological botany”
Conjectured · Our reconstructionour placement'Thessalus' (identification with the physician Thessalus of Tralles is disputed)
On the Virtues of Plants
Περὶ βοτανῶν
Opening words not preserved.
Length: not counted
◇ Doubted: the attribution is disputed; the attribution is uncertain. The author calls himself Thessalus; whether he is the Neronian physician Thessalus of Tralles is unproven.
Above, his entry form, filled from what we know. Below, ours.
II · Does it survive? Where to read it
Survives whole
Greek and Latin versions survive.
Was it in Alexandria?
ConjecturedA witness to the city.
On the ledge: written elsewhere, a witness to the city; not known in the Library.
Read it today
The prologue is translated and discussed in Moyer (2011), ch. 5.
III · In the show
The show has not yet spoken of this work.
IV · Sources and the living entry
Ancient references
- Thessalus, De virtutibus herbarum, prologue
Modern scholarship (2)
- I. S. Moyer, Egypt and the Limits of Hellenism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011).
- G. Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes: A Historical Approach to the Late Pagan Mind (Cambridge, 1986)
Entry checked 31 Oct 2026 · no corrections · Suggest a correction ›
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