Roman Medicine

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Roman Medicine Public Health

• Prevention better than the cure - Roman ideas on
  medicine

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What we will learn today

• How they developed ideas from the Greeks.
• Roman ideas on what caused illness.
• The nature of empirical observation.
• The development of Roman Public Health.

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The Impact of Greek Medicine

• The impact the Greeks made on Rome can be seen in
  several ways.
• One is the use of an Asclepion in Rome to combat
  the plague that broke out in the city in 293 BC.
• The second is the use of Greek doctors look at
  this table.

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Social and Ethnic status of Roman Doctors from
1st to 3rd century AD
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Why such a heavy reliance on the Greeks?

• This was due to the low social standing doctors
  had in Roman society.
• When did this change?
• When Julius Caesar made a decree giving doctors
  citizenship and the doctors who treated the rich
  could also become rich themselves.

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Copy this table
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Now let us look at public health
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Prevention better than the cure.

• To the Romans this can be said to be their main
  idea about public health.
• A key example is their attempts to stop the
  spread of disease and death that surrounded the
  swamps in Rome.

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Observation

• The Romans observed that the people who lived
  near the swamps tended to get ill and die.
• We now know this disease is called Malaria - they
  did not know this.
• They tried to gain an understanding as to an
  effective way to deal with the illness.

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Febris

• Febris was a minor Roman goddess for fever - a
  symptom of the disease.
• A temple was built where the disease was and
  prayers were said but no reduction in illness was
  observed.

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Task

• Write the subtitle Roman Public Health
• Answer this question What do the actions of the
  Romans tell you about their belief in medicine?

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Empirical Observation

• The next step the Romans took was to drain the
  swamp - this in effect shows the Romans had
  developed a system of EMPIRICAL OBSERVATION

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EMPIRICAL OBSERVATION

• Did they know what caused the illnesses?
• Did they realise that the swamp was in some way
  connected to the problem?
• So, remove the swamp, remove the problem - this
  is empirical observation.
• Acting on what they know rather than waiting to
  find out all the information.

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So what did they think caused disease?

• Bad air
• Bad water
• Bad smells
• Swamps or marshland
• Being dirty
• Living near sewerage
• In essence they had no clue but acted on what
  they saw.

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Task

• Write down a definition for EMPIRICAL
  OBSERVATION.
• Use the Romans problem as an example.

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Roman Public Health - Aqueducts
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Roman Public Health - Baths
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Roman Public Health - Toilets
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Task

• Using the notes in front of you, create a booklet
  on Roman Public Health using the

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Final Task

• Quick Quiz
• This is designed to see what you have found out
  about Roman Public Health.