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Galen and Roman Medicine: or can a Greek become a Latin?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 September 2012

Vivian Nutton
Vivian Nutton
Affiliation:
The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine, University College London, 183 Euston Road, London, NW1 2BE, UK. Email: ucgavnu@ucl.ac.uk
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Abstract

The history of medicine in the Roman world has frequently been viewed from the perspective of the Elder Pliny (ca. AD 70), who described an invasion of incompetent, worthless charlatans from Greece and beyond. This extreme viewpoint was not shared by many of the inhabitants of Italy and the Western provinces, who welcomed these outsiders. This paper looks at the reasons why Greek-speaking doctors migrated westwards, and, through the writings of their most famous representative, Galen of Pergamum (127–216), how they became integrated into a Latin society.

Type
Focus: Classical Medicine in the Middle Ages
Information
European Review , Volume 20 , Issue 4 , 04 September 2012 , pp. 534 - 542
Copyright
Copyright © Academia Europaea 2012

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References

References and Notes

1. Recent syntheses include Cruse, A. (2003) Roman Medicine (Stroud: Tempus); V. Nutton (2004) Ancient Medicine (London: Routledge); and, more traditional, J.M. André (2006) La medicine à Rome (Paris: Tallandier). I have added references to ancient material only to recent discoveries and material not easily located in these books.Google Scholar
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