A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

Smith, William

A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. William Smith, LLD, ed. 1890

a physician at Rome in the first century after Christ, who, according to Pliny (Plin. Nat. 29.5), made it a favour that he was content to receive from the emperor five hundred thousand sesterces per annum (or rather more than four thousand four hundred pounds), as he might have made six hundred thousand sesterces (or rather more than five thousand three hundred pounds), by his private practice. He and his brother, who received the same annual income from the emperor Claudius, left between them at their death, notwithstanding large sums that they had spent in beautifying the city of Naples, the sum of thirty millions of sesterces, or rather more than two hundred and sixty-five thousand six hundred pounds. As these sums are considered by Pliny to be very large, they may serve to give us some idea of the fortunes made at Rome by the chief physicians about the beginning of the empire. (Penny Cyclopaedia.)

[W.A.G]