Seven texts from
Late Antiquity constitute the main sources of the
Hippiatrica: the
veterinary manuals of Apsyrtus, Eumelus (a veterinary practitioner in
Thebes, Greece) Hierocles,
Hippocrates, and Theomnestus, as well as the work of
Pelagonius (originally a
Latin text translated into Greek), and the chapter on horses from the agricultural compilation of Anatolius. Although the aforementioned authors allude to their
classical Greek veterinary predecessors (i.e.
Xenophon and
Simon of Athens), the roots of their tradition mainly lie in
Hellenistic agricultural literature derived from
Mago of Carthage. Content-wise, the sources in the
Hippiatrica provide no systematic exposition of veterinary art and emphasize practical treatment rather than on
aetiology or
medical theory. However, the compilation contains a wide variety of literary forms and styles:
proverbs,
poetry,
incantations, letters, instructions, prooimia, medical definitions,
recipes, and reminiscences. In the entire
Hippiatrica, the name of
Cheiron, the Greek
centaur associated with healing and linked with
veterinary medicine, appears twice (as a deity) in the form of a rhetorical invocation and in the form of a spell; a
remedy called a
cheironeion () is named after the mythological figure. ==References==