The Veterinary Medicine of Chiron (Mulomedicina Chironis)

III. I am convinced that the Mulomedicina was composed around the year 400 AD. For Apsyrtus published his Greek book on veterinary medicine after the year 334,²⁾ while Vegetius flourished between the years 383—450,³⁾ and Pelagonius, who wrote after the year 350,⁴⁾ does not yet know the Mulomedicina.⁵⁾ We shall judge it to have been composed either at the end of the fourth century or the beginning of the fifth.

What its genuine state was is seen from §§ 115—163 and 266—306, where the titles of the authors from whom they were drawn are prescribed for many particles. Besides Chiron and Apsyrtus, there occur Sotio, Polycletus, [and] Farnax Pharnax as authors.¹⁾

1) [Translator note: Page 18 text ends here; the following note relates to p. 18 but continues the thought.]
2) Cf. above p. VIII.
3) It is agreed by all today that the author of the Epitoma rei militaris Epitome of Military Affairs also composed the Ars Veterinaria Veterinary Art. However, learned men have so far tried in vain to define more accurately the time when the Epitoma was edited.
4) Cf. Pelagonius ed. Ihm p. 16.
5) For Pelagonius translates some chapters of Apsyrtus differently than they are read in the Mulomedicina, cf. e. g. below § 451 sq. But I think those particles of the Mulomedicina which we also read in Pelagonius were either drawn from the same source or interpolated. It is added that Vegetius himself distinguished Pelagonius from Chiron and Apsyrtus as his own peculiar writer.