Ae'lius Promo'tus
（
Αἴλιος προμῶτος), an ancient physician of Alexandria, of whose personal history no particulars are known, and whose date is uncertain.
He is supposed by Villoison (
Anecd. Graec. vol. ii. p. 179. note 1) to have lived after the time of Pompey the Great, that is, in the first century before Christ; by others he is considered to be much more ancient; and by Choulant (
Handbuch der Bücherkunde für die Aeltere Medicin, Ed. 2. Leipzig, 1840, 8vo.), on the other hand, he is placed as late as the second half of the first century after Christ.
He is most probably the same person who is quoted by Galen (
De Compos. Medicam. secund. Locos, 4.7, vol. xii. p. 730) simply by the name of
Aelius.
Works
He wrote several Greek medical works, which are still to be found in manuscript in different libraries in Europe, but of which none (as far as the writer is aware) have ever been published, though Kühn intended his works to have been included in his collection of Greek medical writers.
Some extracts from one of his works entitled
Δυναμερόν,
1 Medicinalium Formularum Collectio, are inserted by C. G. Kühn in his
Additam. ad Elench. Med. Vet. a J. A. Fabricio in "
Bibl. Gr."
Exhib., and by Bona in his
Tractatus de Scorbuto, Verona, 1781, 4to.
Other Works
Two other of his works are quoted or mentioned by Hieron. Mercurialis in his
Variae Lectiones, 3.4, and his work
De Venenis et Morbis Venenosis, 1.16, 2.2; and also by Schneider in his Prefaces to Nicander's
Theriaca, p. xi., and
Alexipharmaca, p. xix.
[
W.A.G]
