Ancient Medicine: Module 3

Terms in this set (39)

Types of sources

1) Epigraphic
2) Papyrological
3) Manuscript (literary source)

Epigraphic Evidence

Comes from all times and places over Mediterranean world

Tells us about social world (places in society, tax breaks, religious honors and priesthood)

Learn nothing about medical theories

Forms of Epigraphic evidence

-Gravestones

- honorific inscriptions

Papyrological Evidence

Written on a papyrus leaf from Egypt (only from egypt)

From 2nd century BCE to 6th century CE

Provides best general picture of average healers

problems with papyrological evidence

- very short
- used to provide a general cultural picture of healing practices, not individual theories or ideas

Literary evidence

- Written on animal skins
- Much has been lost
- certain things were never written down at all (clinical skills written at bedside)
- Certain people never wrote ( some people were not literate)

Survival of evidence

- Manuscripts copied by hand
- Manuscripts from vellum last longer than manuscripts from papyrus
- Medical materials are technical knowledge (demand depends on demand of practitioners)
-Latin works had to pass through a bottleneck in late antiquity; if they survived to 700-800 CE we can still read them
- Greek works has to survive sack of Constantinople; if they survived past 13th century we can still read them

Hippocrates and the Hippocratic Corpus

450-100 BCE

About 65 treatises in greek

Apollonium of Citium

90-70 BCE

3 books illustrated commentary on Hippocrates "On Joints" in Greek

30 CE

8 books on dietetics, pharmacology, and surgery in Latin

fl. 30-70 CE; collection of vocabulary notes on Hippocratic treatises in Greek

Scribonius Largus

fl. 40 CE; 1 treatise on pharmacology in Latin

60-90 CE, 5 books of herbs, their compounds and properties in Greek

Pliny the Elder

fl. 77 CE, books 20-32 of his Natural History, an encyclopedia, concern medicine and pharmacology in Latin

c. 100; 1 treatise on history and doxography of pulse theory in Greek

c. 100 CE; 4 treatises in Greek, gynecology

c. 100 CE; 2 treatises on diseases, their symptoms and causes, in Greek

Rufus of Ephesus

c. 100 CE; 7 treatises in Greek

Anonymous Londinensis

100-200 CE; papyrus roll, medical doxography from Aristotle's school in Greek

129-216 CE; about 150 treatises survive in greek, more in medieval Latin & Arabic

fl. 360 CE; 26 of 50 book collection of excerpts from previous authors in Greek

Caelius Aurelianus

fl. 400 CE; 2 treatises in Latin as translations from Soranus' Greek (which do not survive in Greek)

650-700 CE; 7 book revision of Oribasius' collection

Four periods on Ancient History

Classical Greece (500-323 BCE)
Hellenistic Period (323-31 BCE)
Roman Empire (31 BCE-250 CE)
Late Antiquity (250-600 CE)

Amount of materials from four periods

Most from Roman Empire
Some from Classical greece
Almost none from Hellenistic
Large summaries from late antiquity

3 strands of medical knowledge before Hippocrates

-Foreign Healing Cultures
- Medical Knowledge in folk tradition
- Philosophical interest in natural world

Source for best doctors

Egypt according to the Iliad

Medicine in Ancient Egypt sources

-Eye painting
- 5-10 Papyri
- Cippi (magical protective amulet)

Medical knowledge in Greek Folk Tradition

Iliad- Apollo releases plague on invading army
Works and days- Myth about decline to man & intro to disease to humans

Doctor in Iliad- mortal man taught by centaur Chiron

Podalirius and Machaon

Sons of Asclepius- treat other warrior cheiftans

Summarization of Greek Folk Tradition

- Disease comes from Gods
- Mankind in it's current state has always bee afflicted by disease
- Professional healing is a family tradition, taught from father to son
- Homer and Hesiod are oral poets

Pre-Socratic Philosophers

Greek philosophers that lived before Socrates

Interested in questions of moral and natural philosophy

Greek philosopher

Interested in moral questions

Earliest philosopher

Thought earth was made of only water

Alcmaeon of Croton

First to dissect the eye

Nutton quotes his account of health as harmonius blending of qualities

Empedocles of Acragas

Theory of cycle of love and Strife
Theory of four elements
Mechanical process of digestion
Comparison of breathing to water filling and leaving a water clock

Democedes of Croton

-Historic doctor
-Known from historian Herodotus
-Son of doctor Calliphon
-Served polycrates of Samos and King Darius of persia
- Cured King Darius's wife of breast disease

Somrotidas son of Mandrocles

Grave memorial in Megala Hyblea, in Sicily

Earliest Epigraphic evidence of professional doctor

;