Medicine in ancient Rome
Videos
Medicine in ancient Rome was highly influenced by ancient Greek medicine, but also developed new practices through knowledge of the Hippocratic Corpus combined with use of the treatment of diet, regim
Ancient Roman coin depicting Vejovis, the Roman god of medicine throwing a thunderbolt
Relief from a sarcophagus depicting an oculist examining a patient (latter 3rd century AD)
Illustration of Dioscorides
A group of physicians in an image from the Vienna Dioscurides; Galen is depicted top center.
Humorism
Videos
Humorism, the humoral theory, or humoralism, was a system of medicine detailing a supposed makeup and workings of the human body, adopted by Ancient Greek and Roman physicians and philosophers.
Medicine in ancient Rome
…a cut reed that were bandaged around the injury. Many Greek doctors came to Rome. Many of them strongly believed in achieving the right balance of the four humors and restoring the natural heat of patients. Around 200 BC many wealthy families in Rome had personal Greek physicians. By around 50 BC, it was more…
16th-century German illustration of the four humors: Flegmat (phlegm), Sanguin (blood), Coleric (yellow bile) and Melanc (black bile), divided between the male and female sexes
The four humors as depicted in an 18th-century woodcut: phlegmatic, choleric, sanguine and melancholic