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ROMAN PERIOD. 535
the work which he has left behind him is only remotely connected with medical science. This is ARTEMiDdRus,1 surnamed, for distinction' sake, Daldianus, from the circumstance of his mother having been born at Dal-dia or Daldis, a small town of Lydia. He lived at Rome in the reign of Antoninus Pius and M. Aurelius, as we may infer from several passages of his work,2 though some writers have placed him in the reign of Con-stantine. Artemidorus is the author of a work on the interpretation of dreams, entitled 5Oj/efpo«:pm/ca, in five books, which is still extant. He collected the materials for this work by very extensive reading (he asserts that he had read all the books on the subject), on his travels through Asia, Greece, Italy, and the Grecian islands.3 He himself intimates that he had written several works, and, from Suidas and Eudocia, we may infer that one was called oicwoo-KoiriKa, and the other x*lP°°'K07riKd» Along with his occupations on these subjects, he also practiced as a physician. In his work on dreams, his object is to prove that in dreams the future is revealed to man, and to clear the science of interpreting them from the abuses with which the fashion of the time had surrounded it. He does not attempt, however, to establish his opinion by philosophical reasoning, but by appealing to facts partly recorded in history, partly derived from oral tradition of the people, and partly from his own experience. On the last point he places great reliance, especially as he believed that he was called to the task by Apollo. This makes him conceited, and raises him above all fear of censure. The style of the work is simple, correct, and elegant, and this, together with the circumstance that Artemidorus has often occasion to allude to or explain ancient manners and usages, gives to it a peculiar value. The work has also great interest, because it shows us in what manner the ancients symbolized and interpreted certain events of ordinary life, which, when well understood, throws light on various points of ancient mythology.
The first edition of the Oneirocritica is that of Aldus, Venice, 1518, 8vo ; the next is that of Rigaltius, Paris, 1603, 4to, containing a valuable commentary, which goes down, however, only to the sixty-eighth chapter of the second book. The last edition is that of Rein0, Leipzig, 1805, 2 vols. 8vo. It contains the notes of Rigaltius, and some by Reiske and the editor. In 1821, Benedict published his " Notas criticce ad Artemidori Oneiro-
Schneeberg, 8vo.
1 Smith, Diet. Biogr., s. v. 2 Oneirocr., i., 28, 66 ; iv., 1. 3 Ibid., procem., lib. i.
