Skip to main content

Doctors in Ancient Rome

In my previous post, I wrote about the appreciation shown towards healthcare workers during the current pandemic. Not just during this crisis, but people, in general, have a lot of respect for the medical profession. Unfortunately, it seems it wasn’t so in the Ancient Roman civilization.

Medicine wasn’t a very highly regarded profession in Ancient Rome. One of the main reasons for this was because many doctors were actually freed Greek slaves, so they were not respected very much. Also, becoming a doctor required no formal training -- it was mostly from apprenticeship. As a result, there was a lot of trial and error in treating patients, which resulted in a low success rate and therefore, skepticism and even scorn towards doctors. 


The first Greek doctor who came to Rome was Archagathus of Sparta in 219 BC. He specialized in healing battle wounds, but Romans were skeptical of his methods of cutting and burning the flesh, which earned him the nickname, carnifex or 'butcher'. Even prominent Romans like Pliny the Elder and Cato were wary of Greek doctors, with Cato even suggesting that they were sent by the Greeks to kill the Romans as revenge for the Roman conquest. As the Roman writer, Quintus Gargilius Martialis, scornfully described,
"Some doctors charge the most excessive prices for the most worthless medicines and drugs, and others in the craft attempt to deal with and treat diseases they obviously do not understand."

Another reason the Romans had no respect for doctors was that most Romans regarded disease as an affliction caused by angry gods and believed they could only be cured by prayers and sacrificial rituals meant to appease the gods. They had, therefore, little faith in the healing capability of doctors who were mere mortals. It was only after the 1st century AD, when formal medical schools were established, that the medical profession began to gain respect. Even then, surgeons were considered more useful and important than doctors.

It was finally Galen, another Greek doctor, who changed the view of the medical profession in Rome. Galen had formally studied medicine in Alexandria, Egypt, and moved to Rome as a surgeon for gladiators. Studied anatomy through animal dissection and demonstrating it for the Roman public earned him respect and the coveted post of personal physician to the son of Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Galen, who was a follower of Hippocrates' teachings, helped establish medicine as a highly regarded science in Rome through his extensive writings and teachings.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Origin of Neurology

As I consider majoring in neurobiology (the study of the biological mechanisms that control the nervous system) in college, I thought it would be interesting to delve into the origins of neuroscience. For hundreds of years from the ancient Egyptians to the Greeks, humans believed that the seat of intellect was the heart (which is why the ancient Egyptians went to great lengths to preserve the heart after death but discarded the brain!)    The birth of neurology began 2500 years ago with Hippocrates who pondered over the purpose and functioning of the brain, reasoning that the brain must be the organ controlling sensation simply because most sensory organs - eyes, ears, and tongue -- are located close to the brain. This was starkly different from other opinions of the time which held that the heart was the main organ that controlled everything in humans. The brain was simply thought to be a "radiator" for pumping the heart and keeping it cool.  Later, Hippocrates expanded ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Breathing Therapy

One of the key elements of yoga is breathing exercises; in fact, many claim breathing techniques called pranayama form the foundation of yoga as one of its eight pillars, along with asanas (exercises), meditation.  Pranayama is derived from Sanskrit words,  prana meaning "life force" and yama meaning "control." So essentially it means controlling your life force. (More on the life force concept to follow, but I also covered it in a previous post which can be found at https://ancientmedicina.blogspot.com/2020/09/vital-energy-in-ancient-medicine.html)  One of the pranayama exercises used in yoga is called  Nadi Shodhana  which means purification of the channel or flow in Sanskrit. It requires timed deep inhaling and exhaling from alternate nostrils repeatedly. While pranayama is common practice for anyone with knowledge of yoga (including my family), what is not widely known is the real medical benefits of this breathing technique. Many people do it because it ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Rx Symbol

Have you ever wondered why medicines are denoted with an ℞ or Rx symbol? There are actually many theories about its origin but the most common one is that the symbol for prescriptions originated from the "Eye of Horus", which was an ancient Egyptian symbol associated with healing powers. According to Egyptian mythology, Horus lost his eye in battle but his mom used her powers to restore his eye, hence it became a symbol of healing.  Eye of Horus In the 2 nd century, Greek physician Galen adapted this symbol to impress his patients. Galen’s influence on medicine was so strong that even the symbol was borrowed through the centuries and it eventually evolved into the modern symbol Rx (the eye of Horus kinda looks like an Rx). Other theories place its origin in Latin and Roman times. One theory is that Rx was used as an abbreviation of the Latin word recipere , meaning “to prepare,” which physicians wrote on medical prescriptions. Yet another theory points to the similarity of...
Post a Comment
Read more