Until the mid-nineteenth century the Western medical tradition rested firmly on the foundations established in Classical Greece and later transmitted throughout the Roman Empire. Against this long and complex background, including both religious and magical medicine, Audrey Cruse looks at the many different aspects of medicine and health in the Roman Empire, especially Roman Britain.
There can be little doubt that the Romans experienced many of the illnesses that are still encountered today, and individuals have always had to decide how best to deal with their health-related concerns. The Roman Empire was an amalgam of many cultures, often with dissimilar ideas and beliefs. The Greek impact on health was particularly dominant and, therefore, this book focuses on Greco-Roman medicine as it was practised during the Pax Romana, the period between the accession of Augustus and the death of Marcus Aurelius. Drawing on ancient literature supplemented with evidence from archaeology, paleopathology, epigraphy and numismatics the Greco-Roman medical context is carefully examined. A particular focus is on the effectiveness of approaches to both preventing and treating a range of physical and psychological problems. Detailed consideration is also given to the ancient technical and hygienic achievements in addition to the place of healers within Roman society. Uniquely, within each chapter, the author draws on his own clinical and public health experience, combined with modern research findings, in assessing the continuing relevance of Greco-Roman medicine. For example, Galen`s focus on access to fresh air, movement, sensible eating and getting sufficient sleep matter as much today as they did in the past. Our classical forebears can also assist us in determining the best balances between prevention and treatment, centralised control and individual responsibility, as well as the most appropriate uses of technology, drugs and surgery. Some ancient pharmaceutical compounds are already showing promise in treating infections. In addition, practising Stoicism and getting some locotherapy should be considered by anyone struggling to cope with the stresses and strains of modern life.
Latin medical texts transmit medical theories and practices that originated mainly in Greece. This interaction took place through juxtaposition, assimilation and transformation of ideas. 'Greek' and 'Roman' in Latin Medical Texts studies the ways in which this cultural interaction influenced the development of the medical profession and the growth of knowledge of human and animal bodies, and especially how it provided the foundations for innovations in the areas of anatomy, pathology and pharmacology, from the earliest Latin medical texts until well into the medieval world.
Galen of Pergamum (A.D. 129 - ca. 216) began his remarkable career tending to wounded gladiators in provincial Asia Minor. Later in life he achieved great distinction as one of a small circle of court physicians to the family of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, at the very heart of Roman society. Susan Mattern's The Prince of Medicine offers the first authoritative biography in English of this brilliant, audacious, and profoundly influential figure. Like many Greek intellectuals living in the high Roman Empire, Galen was a prodigious polymath, writing on subjects as varied as ethics and eczema, grammar and gout. Indeed, he was (as he claimed) as highly regarded in his lifetime for his philosophical works as for his medical treatises. However, it is for medicine that he is most remembered today, and from the later Roman Empire through the Renaissance, medical education was based largely on his works. Even up to the twentieth century, he remained the single most influential figure in Western medicine. Yet he was a complicated individual, full of breathtaking arrogance, shameless self-promotion, and lacerating wit. He was fiercely competitive, once disemboweling a live monkey and challenging the physicians in attendance to correctly replace its organs. Relentless in his pursuit of anything that would cure the patient, he insisted on rigorous observation and, sometimes, daring experimentation. Even confronting one of history's most horrific events--a devastating outbreak of smallpox--he persevered, bearing patient witness to its predations, year after year. The Prince of Medicine gives us Galen as he lived his life, in the city of Rome at its apex of power and decadence, among his friends, his rivals, and his patients. It offers a deeply human and long-overdue portrait of one of ancient history's most significant and engaging figures.
This work sheds light on the mostly obscure topic of medicine and its use in the Roman military. It explores the workings of the ancient healthcare system, the methods of care by physicians, and the treatments for different ailments and injuries. The contributions utilise historical writings, archeological artifacts, and more recent research on the United States military in order to discuss the past with an eye on the future of military and wildlife survival.
For the first time, medical systems of the Ancient Near East and the Greek and Roman world are studied side by side and compared. Early medicine in Babylonia, Egypt, the Minoan and Mycenean world; later medicine in Hippocrates, Galen, Aelius Aristides, Vindicianus, the Talmud. The focus is the degree of "rationality" or "irrationality" in the various ways of medical thought and treatment. Fifteen specialists contributed thoughtful and well-documented chapters on important issues.
Topics include the effects of disease and medicine on people at different levels of Roman society, the role of the physician in the Roman army, contraception, drugs, surgery, and magic. Jackson (curator, Department of Pre-historic and Romano-British antiquities, British Museum) adds evidence from excavations, sculptures, reliefs, vases, and wall-paintings to the testimony of ancient medical authors. Fascinating and chilling. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
The third edition of this magisterial account of medicine in the Greek and Roman worlds, written by the foremost expert on the subject, has been updated to incorporate the many new discoveries made in the field over the past decade. This revised volume includes discussions of several new or forgotten works by Galen and his contemporaries, as well as of new archaeological material. RNA analysis has expanded our understanding of disease in the ancient world; the book explores the consequences of this for sufferers, for example in creating disability. Nutton also expands upon the treatment of pre-Galenic medicine in Greece and Rome. In addition, subtitles and a chronology will make for easier student consultation, and the bibliography is substantially revised and updated, providing avenues for future student research. This third edition of Ancient Medicine will remain the definitive textbook on the subject for students of medicine in the classical world, and the history of medicine and science more broadly, with much to interest scholars in the field as well.
The history of healthcare in the classical world suffers from notable neglect in one crucial area. While scholars have intensively studied both the rationalistic medicine that is conveyed in the canonical texts and also the ‘temple medicine’ of Asclepius and other gods, they have largely neglected to study popular medicine in a systematic fashion. This volume, which for the most part is the fruit of a conference held at Columbia University in 2014, aims to help correct this imbalance. Using the full range of available evidence - archaeological, epigraphical and papyrological, as well as the literary texts - the international cast of contributors hopes to show what real people in Antiquity actually did when they tried to avert illness or cure it.
