Diates

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Diates grece Cassius felix reumatica passio quando .s. sanguinis tumor membro supervenit maxime in iuncturis et in facie.


Apparatus:

Diates ABC f | Dyates ejp
sanguinis | sanguis B fp
in iuncturis et in facie (fatie j) ABC ejp | i. f. et i. iu. ms. f


Translation:

Diates is the Greek term, which Cassius Felix explains as reumatica passio {"rheumatic affliction"}, i.e. when a gathering of blood afflicts a limb, predominantly in the joints and in the face.


Commentary:

Diates:
Greek διάθεσις /diáthesis/ means "placing in order, arrangement; disposition; bodily state", of which the latter meaning applies here. Simon's witnesses all show a curtailed form: Diates, possibly from a *Diat(h)esis in their common source where the noun ending –is was abbreviated – often e.g. as "|", i.e. *diates| – and then no longer recognized as such by the copyists.

κωλικὴ διάθεσις /kōlikḕ diathesis/:
Simon has also dropped the adjective that must have preceded *diatesis, since διάθεσις /diáthesis/ itself is a general term, cf. κωλικὴ διάθεσις /kōlikḕ diathesis/ meaning "colic". The original expression can be reconstructed from Simon's translation reumatica passio and it is also attested in Cassius Felix's text, cf. below, and it would have been in Greek ῥευματικὴ διάθεσις /rheumatikḕ diáthesis/ or in Simon's expected transcription: *reumatice diat(h)esis, "rheumatic condition".

Simon's entry is a brief resume of a more explicit passage in Cassius Felix De medicina, 23, ed. Fraisse (2001: 47f.). Ad reuma {"On flux/rheum"}, § 1:
Intellegitur reuma quotiens valida influxione humoris nullis praecedentibus causis subito intumuerit membrum. Et appellatur a Graecis reumatice diathesis id est reumatica passio. Contingit frequenter, maxime tamen in articulosis locis, ut exempli causa in genu aut in cubito aut iugulo aut maxilla cum aure usque ad tempora, aliquando etiam simul et faciem, … - "One can always diagnose flux or rheum when, due to a strong inflowing of humour and without there being any previous afflictions, a limb has suddenly swollen up. This is called by the Greeks reumatice diathesis, which means 'rheumatic condition'. It affects people often, predominantly in the joints, e.g. the knee, the elbow, the collarbone or the jawbone with the ear and up to the temples, sometimes even the whole of the face …"


WilfGunther 18:34, 23 July 2014 (BST)


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