Rhetoric was also treated in the encyclopaedia. Quintilian, who mentions him as one of the more careful writers on that subject (iii. 1, 21, ‘accuratius scripsit Celsus’), frequently combats his opinions and speaks of him rather contemptuously: e.g. ix. 1, 18, ‘Cornelius Celsus nimia profecto novitatis cupidine ductus. Nam quis ignorasse eruditum alioqui virum credat,’ etc. He may be the Celsus of Juv. 6, 245, who (according to the Scholiast) wrote a manual of rhetoric in seven books.
There were also six books on the history of philosophy. Augustine de haeres. prol., ‘Opiniones omnium philosophorum qui sectas varias condiderunt usque ad tempora sua vi. non parvis voluminibus quidam Celsus absolvit; nec redarguit aliquem, sed tantum quid sentirent aperuit. Cum ferme centum philosophos nominasset,’ etc.
Celsus also wrote separate treatises (1) on philosophy, Quint. x. 1, 24, ‘Scripsit non parum multa Cornelius Celsus, Sextios secutus, non sine cultu ac nitore’; (2) on strategy (Lydus de mag. i. 47).
PHAEDRUS.
The title of Phaedrus’ work, ‘Phaedri Augusti liberti fabularum Aesopiarum libri,’ probably means that he was a freedman of Augustus. Tiberius is called ‘Caesar Tiberius’ in ii. 6, 7; contrast the reference to Augustus, iii. 10, 39, ‘a divo Augusto.’ Phaedrus was born in Thrace, possibly in the district of Pieria; but the date is unknown; iii. prol. 17,
‘Ego, quem Pierio mater enixa est iugo,
in quo tonanti sancta Mnemosyne Iovi
fecunda novies artium peperit chorum’;
ibid. 54,
‘Ego, litteratae qui sum propior Graeciae,
cur somno inerti deseram patriae decus?
Threissa cum gens numeret auctores suos,
Linoque Apollo sit parens, Musa Orpheo.’
Some wrongly take these allusions to mean that he belongs to the realm of poesy. That he came to Rome early is shown by the knowledge of Latin literature he acquired in his boyhood. Cf. iii. epil. 33, where he quotes Ennius,
‘Ego, quondam legi quam puer sententiam,
“Palam mutire plebeio piaculum est,”
dum sanitas constabit, pulchre meminero.’