Magnus

• a Roman surname, e. g. Cn. Pompeius Magnus; v. Pompeius.

a Roman consular, accused of having organized an extensive plot against Maximinus I., in which, according to Herodian, he was supported by a great number of centurions, and the whole body of the senate. The emperor, soon after his accession (A. D. 235), was about to commence a campaign against the Germans; and having thrown a bridge over the Rhine, for the purpose of transporting his troops, it was proposed by the conspirators to break down the structure as soon as the prince should have passed, and thus leave him on the further bank, with a handful of men, at the mercy of the barbarians. The truth or falsehood of the charge was never ascertained, for all who were impeached, or who were open to the most remote suspicion, were instantly put to death without trial or investigation, without being allowed to confess their guilt, or to assert their innocence. The statement that the whole senate were parties to the scheme is, considering the nature and circunmstances of the case, an extravagant hyperbole, contradicted by the very details of the narrative, although doubtless from the well-known hatred entertained by that body towards the sanguinary tyrant, they would have rejoiced in any event which might have caused his destruction. (Herodian. 7.2; Capitolin. Maximin. duo, 10.) [W.R]

(Μάγνος), the name of several physicians, whom it is difficult to distinguish with certainty. (See Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. xiii. p. 313, ed. vet.; C. G. Kiihn, Additam. ad Elench. Medicor. Vet. a J. A. Fabricio exhibit. ; Guidot, Notes to Theophilus, De Urin. ; Haller, Bibl. Med. Pract. vol. iv. p. 203.)

1. A native of Antiochia Mygdonica (called more frequently Nisibis), in Mesopotamia, who studied medicine under Zenon, and was a fellowpupil of Oribasius and Ionicus, in the latter half of the fourth century after Christ. Eunapius, who has given a short account of his life (De Vit. Philos. p. 168, ed. 1568), says that he lectured on medicine at Alexandria, where he enjoyed a great reputation, though not so much for his practical skill as for his eloquence and power of argument. He is probably the person who wrote a work on the Urine, which is mentioned by Theophilus (De Urin. praef. and 100.3, 9) and Joannes Actuarius (De Urin. 1.2). If so, he bore the title Ἰατροσοφιστής (Theoph. l.c.). He is also probably the physician mentioned by Philostorgius (Hist. Eccles. 8.8) as living at Alexandria in great repute, in the time of Valentinian and Valens.

2. A native of Ephesus, in Lydia, from the second book of whose letters (" Epistolae") Caelius Aurelianus quotes (De Morb. Acut. 3.14. p. 225) a short passage, relating to hydrophobia. He is perhaps the same physician who is elsewhere quoted by Caelius Aurelianus (De Mort. Acut. 2.10, p. 96), and said to have belonged to the medical sect of the Methodici, and to have lived before Agathinus, and therefore in the first century after Christ.

3. A native of Philadelphia in Lydia, whose medical formulae are quoted by the younger Andromachus, and who must therefore have lived in or before the first century after Christ. (Galen, De Compos. Medicam. sec. Locos, 7.4, vol. xiii. p. 80.) He is also mentioned elsewhere in Galen's works (vol. xiii. pp. 296, 829).

4. A native of Tarsus in Cilicia, who must have lived in or before the beginning of the second century after Christ, as one of his medical formulae is quoted by Asclepiades Pharmacion. (Galen, De Compos. Medicam. sec. Locos, 9.7, vol. xiii. p. 313.)

Κλινικός, and Magnus ὁ Περιοδευτής, whose prescriptions are mentioned by Galen (De Compos. Medicam. sec. Locos, 5.3, vol. xii. pp. 829, 844), are perhaps the same person; perhaps also they are the same as either No. 3, or No. 4. Magnus "Sophista," whose medical formulae are quoted by Nicolaus Myrepsus (De Compos. Medicam. 1.305, 2.5, 34.17), may also be the same person.

5. The Magnus who wrote on Antidotes, and attained the dignity of Archiater, must be a different person from any of the preceding, as he was a contemporary of Galen, about the middle of the second century after Christ. (Galen, De Ther. ad Pis. cc. 12, 13, vol. xiv. pp. 261, 262.) He is quoted also by Serapion (Pract. 7.8), who calls him "Rex Medicorum in tempore Galieni."

6. The Magnus who lived after Themison, about the same time as Archigenes, or a littie earlier, and who belonged to the medical sect of the Pneumatici (Galen, De Differ. Puls. 3.2, vol. viii. p. 646), was also probably a different person from any of the preceding, and lived in the latter half of the second century after Christ. He wrote a work, Περὶ τῶν Ἐφευρημένων μετὰ τοὺς Θεμίσωνος Χρόνους, De Inventis post Themisonis Tempora, consisting of at least three books (Gal. ibid. p. 641), from which several passages are quoted by Galen relating to the pulse (ibid. pp. 640, 641,756). On this subject Magnus differed in several points from Archigenes, by whom some of his opinions were controverted. (Gal. De Caus. Puls. 1.4, vol. ix. pp. 8,18, 21, Id. De Differ. Puls. vol. viii. pp. 638, 640, &c.)

7. Abú-l-Faraj mentions a physician of this name, who lived in the seventh century after Christ; but the Arabic writers are so incorrect in Greek history and Chronology, that it is not at all unlikely that he is speaking of one of the persons already named. (Hist. Dynast. p. 115.)

There is extant in the Greek Anthology an epigram of a physician of this name, Εις τὴν Εἰκόνα Γαληνοῦ (Anthol. Planud. § 270); and also one by Palladas, Εἰς Μάγνον Ἰατροσοφιστήν (11.281, ed. Tauchn). [W.A.G]

[Arborius.]

[Ausonius.]

[Felix, p. 144a.]

[Fonteius, p. 180b.]