A camp bolus so poison does not take you
Against being taken by a deleterious drug. So that we suffer nothing toward poison — there being two cures, of healing and of making it that one not suffer, and the second necessary — let someone, having become fasting of every putting-on, take twenty leaves of rue, two dried figs, and of walnuts an equal to the dried figs, and he would become unconquered to every drug; let a grain of salt also be present with these. Many bear witness by trial. Others, gathering more exactly, doubled the salt and the rue, and set twenty berries of pepper.
The more complete, which makes all drugs inactive and which is easy to carry in camp, is this: of fatty dried figs, and likewise of the brightest walnuts, and of dry rue, and also of ripe juniper berries, and still of Lemnian seal, equal parts, cut in a mortar and make little spheres the size of a Pontic nut, and take one each day.
Greek
2.7 Πρὸς τὸ μὴ δηλητηρίῳ ἁλίσκεσθαι Ἵνα δὲ μηδὲν πρὸς δηλητηρίου πάσχωμεν (δυοῖν γὰρ ὄντων ἀκῶν <τοῦ ἰᾶσθαι καὶ> τοῦ ποιεῖν τὸ μὴ πάσχειν ἀναγκαῖον), νῆστις πάσης ἐπιβολῆς γενόμενος, εἰ λαμβάνοι τις κʹ μὲν φύλλα πηγανίου, ἰσχάδας δὲ δύο καὶ καρύων τῶν ἰσχάδων ἴσον, ἀνάλωτος γένοιτο ἂν παντὶ φαρμάκῳ· προσέστω δὲ τούτοις καὶ χόνδρος ἁλός. Πολλοὶ μὲν οὖν τῇ πείρᾳ μαρτυροῦσιν· οἳ δὲ ἀκριβέστερον συναγαγόντες, ἐδιπλα σίασαν τὸ ἅλας καὶ τὸ πήγανον, ἔθεσαν δὲ πεπέριδος κοκκία κʹ. Τὸ δὲ τελειότερον, ὅπερ ἄπρακτα ποιεῖ πάντα φάρμακα καὶ ὃ εὐχερὲς ἐν στρατοπέδῳ βαστάζεσθαι, τοῦτο· ἰσχάδων λιπαρῶν καρύων τε ὁμοίως τῶν λαμπροτάτων καὶ πηγάνου ξηροῦ, πρὸς δὲ καὶ πεπείρων ἀρκευθίδων, ἔτι τε Λημνίας σφραγίδος ἴσα κόπτειν ἐν ὅλμῳ καὶ ποιεῖν σφαιρία καρύου Ποντικοῦ μέγεθος καὶ λαμβάνειν ἑκάστης ἡμέρας ἕν.
About this text
Julius Africanus, Cesti (Embroidered Girdles): a miscellany of history, science, and craft, in the surviving fragments — books 7, 2, and 3 in full, with parts of books 4, 8, 9, and 13, and the colophon of Cestus 18. The older English translates his letters only. The book-2 table of contents and a book-7 appendix are not in this volume.
New English from locked PG 10 / Khazarzar Greek of the Cesti fragmenta through 9.5. Earlier lemma-led scaffold English was discarded. Book-2 pinax and book-7 appendix held. This lock is exhausted.
Catalogue & scope
Khazarzar scan
Witnesses
- Copy-text PG 10 Cesti fragmenta (Khazarzar) (Greek)
This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.