Medicine and philosophy - Classical Homeopathy Online

The Methodism of Caelius Aurelianus 327of internal bleedings), there is no impediment to it, and it is possible toproceed on the basis of a sufficient degree of certainty about these entities.5 conclusionTo the best of my knowledge, passages like those just quoted are withoutparallel in Soranus, and it is tempting to believe that they represent afurther development in Methodism. Yet bearing in mind what was saidearlier about the difficulties involved in comparing Soranus with Caelius,we should be careful here not to overstate the case. Moreover, especiallyin the case of definitions, and to a lesser extent also in the case of causalexplanations, we see Caelius actually appealing to Soranus for support andquoting Soranic definitions and statements about causes. Hence in thesecases the explanatory scenario of ‘tensions inherent in Methodism as such’would seem to present itself as more plausible; it may remain a matterof opinion whether these tensions are real or can be solved, mitigated orat least appreciated, along the lines of what I have called the criterion ofrelevance.Against this, one might still argue that these appeals to Soranus concernSoranus as he appears in Caelius Aurelianus, who may have created his ownimage of his great precursor to make it suit his own version of Methodism(comparable to the way in which Galen created his image of Hippocrates forhis own purposes); and it would certainly be worth examining in what typesof context Soranus is quoted, and what (rhetorical) reasons underly Caelius’practice of quoting him (and other authorities). 100 Yet for the present itseems preferable to refrain from such developmental speculations: nequeualde nobis de hoc certandum est, ne in occulta quaestione uersemur. 101100 On this question, see van der Eijk (1999c). 101 Acut. 2.34.183.