Roman Medicine

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Roman Medicine
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Introduction To Rome and its Empire
Over time the Roman Empire had become nothing
less than a very formidable force. The Empire
had gained rule over many different countries
within its years of power, stretching from Egypt
to Great Britain. Romes Empire was now enormous
and the Senate or Emperor had to take care and
make sure a watch was kept on all areas of their
state. To keep such a watch on an area of
land so expansive as what was under Romes rule,
there would need to be a weapon capable of
keeping so many people in check. For this job,
Rome had its army. The Roman army was what had
made Rome such a strong state. Their soldiers
were well trained and well equipped, prepared to
do anything in defence of Rome. The soldiers
were kept under a strict law which kept their
behaviour on a good level. By having such a
strong rule over these soldiers who could easily
cause an uprising, Rome was able to lay waste to
any opposing army in its path. Romans
believed that their fortunes were controlled by a
powerful group of gods. There was no set belief
but the gods were still thought to have all power
over everyones lives. They thought that by
pleasing the gods they would live good prosperous
lives, their trade or business would go well or
their farmland would be rich and fertile. If the
gods did not receive offerings or were treated
with disrespect, then the doer of this would be
punished. The Romans also used the gods to curse
people. If someone had displeased another in any
way, then the person could make an offering to
the gods and ask that they curse their enemy to a
life of suffering and pain. The Romans like
to to take ideas from other lands, including the
ones they had conquered. A lot of the Roman
ideas and designs came from other cultures and
places. Though they got many of their ideas from
outside Rome they still liked to class anyone who
was not a Roman as inferior. The Greeks had
influenced much of the Romans thinking but they
were seen as weak and feeble by the Romans
despite this.
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Early Roman Medicine
The early beliefs of Roman medicine was that the
man of the house was responsible for all medical
needs. If any human or animal within his care
became ill he would have to use his limited
abilities to try and cure them. The man would
have received his medical knowledge from his
father. Though the Romans believed that these
treatments did work, they were mostly
superstitious guesses. They thought that plants
(animals and other materials) such as cabbages,
had special healing qualities and that the urine
from a person whos diet mainly consisted of
cabbage could be used as a medicine. It was also
believed that if children were washed with this
urine then they would grow up to be strong and
well built. At this time humans and animals
were given the same treatment because it was
believed that a treatment for a human would work
just as well on an animal (or vice versa). The
Romans also believed that they could prevent
illness in a human or animal (if illness was
suspected) by giving them a remedy of plants and
things such as salt before the patient became
sick. If a human or animal became sick it was
completely up to the man to make sure they got
better. Physicians were not approved of in Roman
society so they believed that common farmers
should cure illness because they were not being
paid to do so. They really thought it was just a
waste of time trying to cure anyone who was not
of any significant importance. Public health was
left to normal citizens all because its was
believed that medicine should not be used to make
money.
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Greek Doctors Arrival In Rome
As Rome did not have a very varied knowledge of
medicine then the Greek doctors saw a good
opportunity to spread and use their medical
opinions and theories. The Greek doctors moved
to Rome looking for work but were given a bad
reception by the Romans. This was because the
Romans had thought that using medicine as a
career was unacceptable. It had always been
believed that the common man could cure his
families illnesses and now the Greeks had arrived
and told them that they needed proper doctors,
they were bound to reject even the suggestion.
They thought he Greeks were trying to con them
and believed them to be liars and cheats. By
treating the Greeks badly they thought that they
could drive them out of Rome, taking their idea
of doctors with them. Those who did not
completely detest the Greek doctors still thought
it risky putting their life in the hands of
someone they didnt no and couldnt trust. It
was thought unfair that if a person should die
while in the care of a doctor that the doctor
would not be held responsible for the death.
Mistrust of these doctors grew as people began to
think about all the bad things that could happen
the doctors could be using people for experiments
and learning from their mistakes. In the eyes of
the Romans, experimentation was thought
unnecessary as they were perfectly cable of
keeping their own households in good condition.
After a time the mistrust slackened and Greek
doctors began to be accepted in Roman society.
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Medicine and Religion
The Romans liked to believe that there were gods
who could heal them of their sicknesses as well
as the normal doctors. The Romans also liked to
take other peoples gods and make them their own,
adapting them on the way. They did this with the
Greek God Asklepios. The Romans had no set
religion and so could choose which gods they
believed in and followed. Asklepios soon became
known as Aesculapius and there was a temple built
to worship him in, in the centre of the city.
The idea of a healing god spread throughout the
Roman Empire and even reached Britain.
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The Health of the Roman Army
The health of the Roman soldiers was taken
into careful consideration to make sure that the
army stayed at large. It was well organised and
the treatment of the injured or sick soldiers was
carefully looked after. There were soldier who
were trained both to fight and take care of the
wounded. They were given basic training so that
they could take care of an emergency while in a
battle. There were also special hospitals
situated away from the battlefield, where the
wounded could be treated. These hospitals were
accurately constructed to make sure that there
was a proper drainage system so that all waste
could be taken away without causing illness to
spread within the hospital itself. It was
thought that believed that soldiers should not be
camped near marshes for too long because they
were unhealthy and that a soldier should always
be properly clothed so he would never get cold.
It was thought that daily exercise was better for
the soldiers than seeing a doctor and that no one
should drink swamp water. A camp should not be
situated in the same place fro too long because
the water would become polluted and soldiers
spirits would be damped by the stale smell of the
clustered camp and the smell of humans. The
camps would be moved on a regular basis to keep
disease to a minimum and soldiers spirits to a
maximum. The Romans were very careful when it
came to their army and tried their very best to
make sure it stayed as healthy as was possible.
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Settlement Planning and Water Supply
The Romans believed that the site of a new
settlement was highly important as some places
were healthier than others. They took great care
over deciding the exact spot of the new
settlement and studied all areas of the land
before they set up. Marshes were thought to be
extremely unhealthy as they brought invisible
creatures with them that got into humans and
caused them to be ill. It was all thought
important that a house should be positioned just
in the right place, not just because there were
healthy winds but because it needed to be far
enough away from any swamps or marshes. Clean
water was considered essential to the Romans and
they did their best to make sure settlements had
a clean water supply. To do this they built
great constructions called aqueducts, which
transported the water through a series of
channels. There was, at one point, nine
aqueducts leading into Rome. Several of these
aqueducts also had special filters to make sure
that the water was properly cleaned. As water
was considered so important, only the best
supplies were chosen to go to Rome and the
aqueducts would stretch for miles just to
transport that water. The water was pumped to
government buildings, public bath houses and the
wealthy could pay to have water piped tot heir
houses but normal citizens had to collect their
water from public fountains.
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Bathing and Cleanliness
Bathing was considered a highly important
social event in Rome, so there were many bath
houses where people could meet. These public
baths usually offered a variety of baths at
different temperatures, steam rooms and places
for sports activities. There were both free
baths and those that charged a small fee. The
baths were very popular and people made it a
regular event to go their to gossip or relax.
As well as using the baths to commune, the public
lavatories were a place where people went to
chat. The waste from these lavatories was taken
away by an expansive network of sewers under the
ground. There were seven main sewers that
eventually lead into one great one that carried
all the waste away from the city.
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The Romans Impact on Public Health in Britain
After the Romans had conquered most of
Britain they settled in and began to try and make
the British feel as comfortable as possible.
They wanted them to feel safe and secure so that
they would feel to peaceful and happy to have any
feud against the Romans. The Romans had
brought their own health ideas over to Britain
and were putting them into practice. They built
bath houses, sewers and made sure that the more
important towns had a clean, fresh water supply.
Some towns had public toilets which would lead to
the sewers. Aqueducts were built to supply the
water to towns in Britain, just like those that
had been built for Rome. These aqueducts
supplied towns with fresh water to drink and to
bathe in. The British had not been
accustomed to bathing and receiving water through
pipes they would normally have got all their
water from a well. The British did not see
bathing as one of their main priorities and so
some of the bath houses were knocked down. The
British adapted to the Roman way of life, but
didnt quite get all of their ideas and
traditions to begin with. The Romans
transferred the everyday things from their
country to Britain and in doing so tried to make
the British feel safe and content so that they
would feel no need to retaliate and this luxury
kept the British peaceful for a time.
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The Romans Health
Altogether the Romans had a very serious outlook
on the health of themselves. They tried to
considered every aspect of keeping healthy and
tried every measure to make sure they kept their
towns and cities in the best condition possible.
They took care of their citizens and their
Armys health as well as they would, using a
variety of techniques, such as Hippocratic and
religious medicine. They chose their encampments
with precision and made sure that there was a
clean water supply as well as a way of keeping
clean and disposing waste. The Roams were very
careful to keep their people healthy and in doing
so stopped their empire from collapsing.