Writing in the second book of his “Natural History” (Naturalis Historia), Pliny the Elder (Gaius Plinius Secundus), whilst recounting the many interesting facts he has learned and collected about the Moon, suddenly breaks from his explanations to wax critical upon a “disease of the human mind” he has observed.
I first began the study of the history or religion and of theology in 1990 and have been including the subjects in my ongoing pursuit of knowledge and wisdom ever since, and in this one brief passage, Pliny, in this one aside in his “Natural History” that briefly interrupts the topic about which he was writing, has sliced straight through myriad Gordian knots tied by countless theologians down through the ages.
While many have heard, and may often make reference to the Hippocratic Oath, few have actually ever read it, and even fewer know what it means or indeed know much of anything about the larger body of writings in which it is contained. This new edition of the Loeb Classical Library’s Hippocrates Volume 1 now makes a fresh translation of the Oath, as well as other important writings in the Hippocratic collection, available to all who would avail themselves of it.
For those who might not know it, my first and still true scholarly love is not in fact natural history but rather the classics. Indeed, I took up the study of religion at university due to the fact that it was the department in which I could study Greek. However, life being what it is, I “chose a different path” after my undergraduate studies and for some years have neglected my studies in that area. Realizing this and determining to rectify this neglect, I have recently returned to my reading again this subject area.