Donkey milk knowledge archive · Historical source

Marcellus of Bordeaux (c. 410): ass’s milk with honey as a gentle laxative

The Gallo-Roman official Marcellus wrote a collection of remedies for his sons after AD 408. Among the laxatives it states that ass’s milk with honey loosens the bowels “easily and without danger”.

Historical account: The information reproduced here reflects the knowledge of its time. It is not scientifically substantiated, is not a recommendation and cannot be applied to today. Donkey milk is a food, not a remedy.
c. 410Gaul (Burdigala/Bordeaux, according to tradition)Collection of remedies (household and folk medicine)
Author
Marcellus, former magister officiorum under Theodosius I; called “Marcellus Empiricus” since early modern times
Work
De medicamentis liber; edition by Georg Helmreich, Leipzig: Teubner 1889
Passage
Chapter XXX “Ad ventrem resolvendum …”, §§ 77–78, p. 327 of Helmreich’s edition
Time & place
soon after AD 408 · Gaul (Burdigala/Bordeaux, according to tradition)
Type of source
Collection of remedies (household and folk medicine)

In the original words

What the original says

Asininum lac cum melle potui datum ventrem facile et sine periculo solvit.

Ass’s milk given to drink with honey loosens the bowels [according to Marcellus] easily and without danger.

Latin (late antiquity)Marcellus, De medicamentis, Kap. XXX, § 78, ed. G. Helmreich, Leipzig 1889, S. 327, Z. 23–24

Serum de lacte equino potui datum facile et sine periculo ventrem molliter purgat.

Whey from mare’s milk given to drink purges the bowels easily, without danger and gently.

Latin (late antiquity)Marcellus, De medicamentis, Kap. XXX, § 77, ed. Helmreich 1889, S. 327, Z. 21–23

English rendering: our own translation by the DON DONKEY’S editorial team, following the sense of the text.

Digitised copy · c. 410Page 327 of Georg Helmreich’s edition (Leipzig 1889): chapter XXX with cow’s whey (§ 76), mare’s whey (§ 77) and ass’s milk with honey (§ 78).

A look at the original

What the passage looks like

Page 327 of Georg Helmreich’s edition (Leipzig 1889): chapter XXX with cow’s whey (§ 76), mare’s whey (§ 77) and ass’s milk with honey (§ 78).

The page comes from a freely accessible digitised copy. Click to open the passage at the library.
Google-Digitalisat via Internet Archive; gemeinfrei

View in the digitised copy →

Background

Who, when, what kind of text

Marcellus introduces himself in the preface: “Marcellus vir inluster ex magistro officiorum Theodosii sen.” – a high court official under Emperor Theodosius I, addressing his sons. According to tradition he came from Burdigala, today’s Bordeaux. The work was written after the death of Emperor Arcadius in 408, because Theodosius I is called “the Elder” in it.

“De medicamentis” is divided into 36 chapters and arranges the remedies from head to foot. Marcellus was not a physician; he drew on earlier collections such as Scribonius Largus, the “Medicina Plinii” and the didactic poem of Quintus Serenus, adding household remedies, Gaulish plant names and charms. We quote Georg Helmreich’s Teubner edition (1889).

Content

What the source reports about donkey milk

According to its heading, chapter XXX deals with remedies to loosen the bowels, together with salts, potions and purgative pills “de experimentis”, i.e. from experience. Towards the end of the simple remedies there is a short series of milk products.

First Marcellus names whey from cow’s milk with honey and salt against sluggish bowels, then whey from mare’s milk, which purges “easily, without danger and gently”. Immediately afterwards comes ass’s milk: drunk with honey, it loosens the bowels “easily and without danger”.

The text then moves on to mixtures of sea salt, honey and squill vinegar. Here ass’s milk appears not as a tonic but as a mild laxative alongside other milk products – much as in Quintus Serenus, whom Marcellus knew.

At a glance

Figures & facts from the source

after 408date of composition; Theodosius I is called “sen.” in the preface
36chapters, arranged from head to foot
XXX, 78chapter and paragraph of the passage on ass’s milk
p. 327page in Georg Helmreich’s edition, Leipzig 1889
3milk products in sequence: cow’s whey, mare’s whey, ass’s milk

Timeline

Where this source stands in the history of donkey milk

Each dot is a source from our knowledge archive – from Greek antiquity to the present day.

c. 410400 BC050010001500170018001900today

Critical assessment

How reliable is this source?

Source value

The 1889 edition can be checked page by page in the scan; a more recent critical edition with German translation appeared in 1968 in the Corpus Medicorum Latinorum. Marcellus is a compiler, not a physician: he takes many recipes from older works without naming the source in each case.

Mild remedies from milk

The sequence of cow’s whey, mare’s whey and ass’s milk shows that milk products counted among the gentle, “safe” laxatives – in contrast to the strong herbal purgatives in the same chapter. The formula “sine periculo” is Marcellus’ own classification.

Today’s assessment

The passage documents late antique household medicine and is not a recommendation. Anyone suffering from persistent constipation or digestive complaints should seek medical advice; no effects of donkey milk can be derived from the text.

Our assessment

Marcellus links the line of Serenus with the household medicine of Gaul around 400. The passage interests us because it ranks ass’s milk quite soberly as a mild milk beside cow’s and mare’s whey – without any legend.

References

Sources to check

More sources and studies in the research archive. Summarised by the DON DONKEY’S editorial team, as of November 2026.