The author of the Salutary Precepts (in Greek, Ta Sōtēria Parangelmata) is entirely anonymous, a medical writer from the Late Antique period. Based on the content of the work, scholars date it to between the 4th and 6th centuries CE, a time when the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, Empire was preserving and compiling classical knowledge. The author was likely a practicing physician or teacher, writing in the common technical Greek of the era.

This single surviving work is a practical medical handbook. It belongs to a tradition of late antique compilations that condensed the vast medical theories of earlier Greek authorities, like Hippocrates and Galen, into accessible formats for daily use. The treatise provides advice on maintaining health and treating diseases, reflecting the applied medical knowledge of its time.

According to modern scholars, the work’s significance lies not in innovation, but in its role as a vital link in the chain of medical learning. It exemplifies how classical knowledge was transmitted, simplified, and put into practical use for physicians and students during the transition from antiquity to the Byzantine era. Texts like the Salutary Precepts helped preserve core medical ideas and paved the way for later, more famous Byzantine medical encyclopedias.