Transcript 5. Roman Medicine

Roman Medicine
400 BC–AD 500
The History of Medicine
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Greek and Roman empires
By 200 BC the Greek Empire was in decline and the
Roman Empire was growing.
However, there was a
significant period of overlap
between the two empires, and
much knowledge and
understanding was shared
between the two.
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Growth of the Roman Empire
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What did the Romans do for us?
By the 2nd century AD, the Romans controlled much of
Western Europe. To control this huge empire, Rome used
a vast, highly-trained army.
The Romans knew that to
keep this army effective and
able to take over new lands
and defend existing territory,
its soldiers needed to be well
cared for.
Each Roman fort had a bath house, toilets, fresh water
supplies and a hospital. The Romans emphasized
hygiene, together with exercise and diet, to help keep their
soldiers fit.
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Roman public health
Public health is the measures taken by a government to
look after the health of its people.
Today we expect to have a toilet and a bath in
our homes, to have a ready supply of running
water and to have sewage taken away. These
services are part of public health.
Although the Egyptians and Greeks promoted hygienic
lifestyles, the Romans had a system of public health on a
scale not seen before.
Can you think of reasons why the Romans
emphasized public health?
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Why did the Romans improve public health?
The Romans were able to make the link between hygiene
and disease. They made this link by observing what
seemed to cause ill health, and then taking preventative
methods against the causes of illness.
This process led to a developed system of public health,
which included:
The location of villas and
other buildings were
carefully planned: Marcus
Varro wrote "…place it at the
foot of a wooded hill where it
is exposed to health-giving
winds…”
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Aqueducts were built to transport
fresh water, such as the Pont du Gard
in France.
Public bathhouses were built
which charged minimal
entrance fees.
Remains of the Roman baths at Bath.
Communal public toilets were built in all towns.
Efficient drainage systems carried away sewage and
waste water.
What would have been the effects of these public
health systems?
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How did the Romans improve public health?
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Religious beliefs
Although there were developments in medicine and public
health, many people still relied on the gods for cures. This
was often their first step in treating disease.
People prayed to Salus,
the Roman goddess of
health, and the Greek
god of medicine,
Asclepius.
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Greek and Roman ideas compared
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Roman doctors
Anyone could practise as a doctor without training or any
regulation. Like the Greeks, however, many doctors were
keen to find out more and trained by working for
experienced doctors and/or by reading the Hippocratic
Collection of books.
Others travelled to Alexandria, the
capital of the medical world. Here,
libraries built by the Greeks contained
medical books and writings from Greece,
China, Egypt and India. Doctors went to
Alexandria to share ideas and to gain
new medical knowledge. It was also the
only place where they were allowed to
dissect a human body.
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Galen
Rome’s most famous doctor was Galen.
Galen
AD 129 in Greece
Doctor
Studied medicine from age 17;
Later studied in Alexandria.
Career highlights: Worked in an Asclepeia in Greece;
Surgeon at gladiators’ school;
Doctor to the Roman emperor Marcus
Aurelius;
Teacher of doctors.
Name:
Born:
Occupation:
Education:
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Galen’s four methods and his importance
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The problem with Galen
The main reason that Galen is so important in the history
of medicine is that his methods and ideas were followed
for some 1,500 years. Throughout this time Galen’s
theories remained unquestioned throughout Europe.
Why do you think that doctors’ acceptance of
Galen’s ideas could be damaging to the progress of
medicine?
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