3. (T) VINDAC. ARI
OVISTI CHLORON
4. T. VINDAC . ARIO
VISTI ... RINM
The name of the oculist or proprietor, t. vindac ariovistus, Titus (?) Vindacius or Vindex Ariovistus, is singular; the name ARIOVISTUS being the same as that of the celebrated German king and general that plays so interesting and important a part in the Commentaries of Cæsar, and the reputed valour and prowess of whose troops daunted for a time, and almost created a mutiny in, Cæsar’s army.
On this stamp there are no names of any specific eye-diseases given; but the four sides contain the designation of four collyria that we have not met with on any of the previous medicine-stamps which we have had occasion to describe. These are the collyria Anicetum, Nardinum, Chloron, and Thurinum.
1. T. VINDACii ARIOVISTI ANICETUM.—The Anicetum or infallible Collyrium of T. Vindacius Ariovistus.
The collyrium Anicetum, or Ανικητον, is, as far as I know, described by Oribasius alone. It was composed of red copper, combined with henbane, hemlock, spikenard, frankincense, etc. Oribasius enters it as a collyrium “ad carbunculos aptum.”[555]
Mr. Roach Smith supposes that the collyrium Anicetum of this stamp derives its name from being a preparation containing aniseed. But the formula given by Oribasius does not present this ingredient; and the origin of the term is, we believe, very different. Galen presents us with a clue to its true meaning, when discussing the subject of plasters, in the sixth book of his work, De Compositione Medicamentorum. One, bearing the name of ANICETUM, is (he observes) called so in consequence of its many and wonderful effects (vocatum est insuperabilis (ΑΝΙΚΗΤΟΝ) propter miranda et multa ipsius opera).[556] The term itself is, no doubt, derived from the Greek participle νικητος “conquered,” with the prefix of the privative α. Among his own list of collyria, Galen enters the one known in his time under the name of Collyrium Aster,[557] as unsurpassed (Αστερ Ανικητον[558]).