Medicine in ancient Rome

Medicine in ancient Rome was heavily influenced by ancient Greek medicine. Doctors used ideas from the Hippocratic Corpus along with special diets and surgical procedures.

Two important Greek doctors, Dioscorides and Galen, worked in Rome and shared what they learned. Other doctors, like Soranus of Ephesus and Asclepiades of Bithynia, also helped improve medical knowledge.

Roman doctors were skilled in many areas, such as eye care and urinary health, known as ophthalmology and urology. They performed surgeries using tools like forceps, scalpels, and catheters. These ideas from ancient Rome influenced how doctors help people even today.

Introduction

The Roman Empire mixed Greek and Roman traditions, creating a rich culture over many years. Writers like Cato and Pliny believed in simple healing methods using herbs, chants, prayers, and charms that families could use at home.

Greek medicine came to Italy as the Romans and Greeks built stronger ties. It wasn’t until the healing god Asclepius arrived in 291 BC and the Greek doctor Archagathus came in 219 BC that Roman people widely accepted foreign medical ideas. These ideas blended with Roman ways.

Greek knowledge greatly helped Roman architecture and health care, especially for the Roman army. The army made big steps in medicine. They created a collection of medical writings, hired permanent doctors, built military hospitals called valetudinaria, and began organized care for soldiers who were hurt. The surgical tools found from that time show Romans knew a lot about surgery.

Roman medicine

Roman medicine was shaped by ideas from Greek doctors. Before this, Roman healing mixed religion and magic, with family leaders or religious figures acting as healers. The first trained doctors in Rome were Greeks. One famous Greek doctor, Asclepiades of Bithynia, arrived in 124 BC and was kind to his patients. He suggested they drink wine, rest, and use a special swinging couch to feel better.

Roman doctors, like Greek doctors, watched and learned from nature. They still believed that bad events like famines or diseases might be punishment from the gods. To avoid such problems, they performed special rituals. They thought bad air called miasma caused many illnesses and began to understand how diseases could spread. This led to better ways to keep people healthy, like separating the sick from others and cleaning up more.

The Romans built systems to help public health, such as burying people outside the city, having clean water from aqueducts, public baths, and sewers. They also drained swamps near cities. One of Rome’s most famous doctors was Galen, who studied how the body worked by studying animals in Greece and later became the personal doctor for Emperor Marcus Aurelius.

In 46 BC, Julius Caesar gave Roman citizenship to doctors because the army needed skilled surgeons. After Rome captured the city of Alexandria in 30 BC, they found many valuable books on medicine there. Later, in 10 AD, Emperor Augustus allowed doctors in Rome to avoid certain taxes, but this led many unqualified people to try becoming doctors. To solve this, only a limited number of public doctors in each area were given these tax benefits.

Opposition to Greek medicine in Rome / Pre-Physicians

Cato the Elder did not like the Romans copying Greek ways, including their medicine. He thought having Greek doctors in Rome was dangerous. Before doctors came to Rome, the head of the family took care of sick people. Cato the Elder would visit his neighbors and often used cabbage to help with many problems. He would tell people how to prepare the cabbage, sometimes mixing it with water and wine. For broken arms or legs, he would use a cut reed to wrap around the injury to help it heal.

Contributors

Many Greek doctors came to Rome. They believed in balancing the body's natural elements. By around 50 BC, it was common for rich families to have Greek doctors. These doctors studied biology and philosophy, which helped shape their ideas about medicine.

Dioscorides

Main article: Pedanius Dioscorides

Pedanius Dioscorides was a Greek doctor who lived in Rome around 40–90 AD. He traveled with the army and learned about plants and their uses for medicine. He wrote a book called De materia medica, which listed over 600 herbal cures. This book was very important and was used by doctors for many years.

Galen

Main article: Galen

Galen was a Greek doctor from Pergamon who lived from 129 to around 216 AD. He studied animals because Roman law did not allow human dissections. Galen shared ideas about how the body’s balance affects health. He wrote many books and taught in Rome, becoming a doctor to some Roman emperors.

Asclepiades

Main article: Asclepiades of Bithynia

Asclepiades was a doctor who came to Rome in the 1st century BC. He believed that tiny particles in the body needed to flow freely to keep someone healthy. He used treatments like warm baths, music, and wine to help his patients feel better. He was also the first in Rome to use massage as a way to heal.

Aulus Cornelius Celsus

Main article: Aulus Cornelius Celsus

Celsus was a Roman writer who lived between 25 BC and AD 50. His book De Medicina is one of the best sources we have about Roman medicine. It talks about surgery and different ways doctors thought about treatments.

Soranus

Main article: Soranus of Ephesus

Soranus was a Greek doctor who lived in Rome during the time of emperors Trajan and Hadrian (98–138 AD). He wrote a book about women’s health, covering topics like pregnancy and care after childbirth. He also worked on fractures and surgery.

Hospitals

The ancient Romans built the first hospitals, mainly for soldiers and slaves. These hospitals, called valetudinaria, started as small tents near armies. They grew into permanent buildings near forts. These early hospitals were built during the time of Emperor Trajan.

Valetudinaria were used to care for wounded soldiers. They could hold up to 200 patients and had doctors known as medici. There were also workers who helped with care. Some hospitals were for slaves and were not as well equipped. In addition to these hospitals, some doctors opened clinics in shops called tabernae. People who could not afford doctors sometimes asked for help at temples dedicated to Asclepius, the Roman god of medicine.

Surgery

Main article: Surgery in Ancient Rome

Surgery was used only when other treatments did not work because it was very risky. Doctors mostly worked on the outside of the body, as they knew that treating deep injuries was too dangerous. Ancient Roman doctors had many tools, like bone levers to remove sick bone or objects stuck in bones. They could perform surgeries such as cataract surgery and caesarean sections, as well as older practices like bloodletting. These methods came from Greek ideas in the 2nd century, helped by doctors like Galen.

Medicines

Main article: Food and diet in ancient medicine

People in ancient Rome thought eating the right foods was important for good health. They believed certain foods could help heal the body or make it sick, depending on how they affected the body’s balance. Common foods used for healing included rice, chickpeas, olives, lentils, garden peas, figs, poultry, eggs, and oysters. Eating in moderation was important for staying healthy. When food wasn’t enough, they used other treatments like special medical procedures or surgery. Choosing their own diet and seeing doctors shows that people cared about their health.

Roman doctors used many plant-based medicines and other natural substances. They often got ideas from ancient Greek practices. In a discovery from a ship that sank around 120 BC near Populonia, Tuscany, scientists found a medicine chest with small containers holding tablets made from zinc, iron oxide, starch, beeswax, pine resin, and other plant materials. These were likely used to treat eye problems.

Treatments

Doctors in ancient Rome tried to help people who were sick or hurt. Sometimes they could not cure an illness, so people asked gods for help. Many Romans went to special temples called Asclepieia to ask the god Asclepius for healing. They believed the god could speak to them in dreams and tell them how to get better.

Doctors also treated serious wounds from battles. They looked at the injuries closely and used special stitches to close them. They also used ointments to help the wounds heal. They used a special kind of milk called colostrum from new mothers to help treat different illnesses. People thought this milk could help fight some infections and was used by both men and women.

Diagnostic methods

Doctors in ancient times used many ways to find out what was wrong with a person. One way was by looking at the person’s dreams. They believed dreams could tell them about the person’s health. If the dreams were about normal everyday things, the person was likely healthy. But if the dreams were strange or confusing, it might mean the person was sick. Doctors would then try to help the person get better by changing their diet or other treatments.

Doctors also looked at the stars and planets to understand health. They thought the positions of the sun, moon, and planets could affect the body. They examined things like a person’s urine or other body fluids to learn more about their health too. This was all part of how they figured out what treatment a person needed.

Textual transmission

Galenic medical texts show the old ways of medicine from long ago. Before this, most medical knowledge was shared by speaking, not writing. Galen wrote a lot — almost 350 books — more than any other writer from that time. Before Galen, an important book called De materia medica was written by Pedanius Dioscorides. Dioscorides was a Roman doctor from Greek family. In his book, he described and drew pictures of over 1000 substances and how to use them.

The book De materia medica helped people learn about medicine for many years because it was translated into Greek, Arabic, and Latin. Galen wrote in Greek, but his books were also translated into Arabic and Syriac. He talked about and sometimes disagreed with earlier doctors who followed the teachings of the Hippocratic tradition. We learn about other doctors like Herophilus and Erasistratus because Galen wrote about them. Galen also mentioned the work of Soranus, a doctor known for writing about women's health. By sharing many ideas from before him, Galen's writings became important for medical knowledge for the next 1500 years.