Medicine And Health In The Past
By: Federico Sacchi
Tags: Health, Ancient History, Medicine, Disease, History

Medicine And Health In The Past

How Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans treated diseases

Hippocrates refusing the gifts of Emperor Artaxerxes (1792) | Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson, Public domain

The birth of Medicine is strictly connected to that of Religion. For many ancient populations, like the Babylonians, the Greeks, and the Romans, pseudo-scientific ideas were as much important as the scientific ones.

Since they couldn’t distinguish the two, medicine was very different from how we know it today. Let’s see what I mean by starting with the Babylonians.

Are you ill? You have offended the Gods! — The Babylonians

Thanks to the Code of Hammurabi (one of the most ancient codes of law ever written), we know how Babylonians practiced the art of Medicine.

They thought that illnesses were a punishment of the Gods. When a man fell ill, he was considered to be a sinner. Since the presence of a sinner could have damaged not only himself but also the entire community (because the Gods could have had their revenge on his family), taking care of him was imperative.

A patient’s healing scene, detail of the “Lamashtu bas-relief” (8th century BC) | Louvre Museum, CC BY-SA 2.0 FR (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/fr/deed.en)

Two doctors came to his house: the Ashipu, expert of magic and exorcisms, and the Asu, expert of herbs and ointments. First, the Ashipu tried to understand what sin the man could have done, since understanding the specific sin could have helped to identify the cure. Then the Asu applied a cure based on the conclusion of the Ashipu.

A lot of these cures were, if not harmful, not so useful: for example, the patient’s body could have been covered by excrements to make it undesirable for evil demons. Still, some of them like the use of salt as an antiseptic were quite reasonable (at least for the times)

Surgery was also occasionally practiced by the Asu, but it was very rudimental. Furthermore, if a surgeon had got wrong one of its operations, he would have almost surely sentenced to death, especially if he had operated an aristocrat or another high-class noble. So, they weren’t many aspirant surgeons in Ancient Babylon.

The Hippocratic Oath and the slow path towards a better medicine — The Greeks

Ancient Greek surgical tools used by Hippocrates (5th century BC) | Public Domain

Greek Medicine was not a uniform practice. It varied very much because of the many ancient Greek cities that were themselves very different from each other. However, we can say that at least at its start, Greek medicine was quite similar to its Babylonian counterpart.

Illnesses were thought to be divine punishments (in this sense the story of Chryseis and the Apollo’s plague is a perfect example). Healing was considered to be a god’s gift.

Only at the start of the 5th century BC, Greeks started to investigate the material cause of diseases and to introduce to the concept of diagnosis in medicine.

One of the most famous Greek physicians, who was considered to be the father of medicine itself, was Hippocrates of Kos. His oath, the Hippocratic Oath, is still today pronounced (though not exactly as the original) by aspirant physicians before they become actual medics:

I swear by Apollo Healer, by Asclepius, by Hygieia, by Panacea, and by all the gods and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will carry out, according to my ability and judgment, this oath and this indenture […]I will not administer a poison to anybody when asked to do so, nor will I suggest such a course. Similarly, I will not give to a woman a pessary to cause abortion. Into whatsoever houses I enter, I will enter to help the sick, and I will abstain from all intentional wrong-doing and harm, especially from abusing the bodies of man or woman […] Now if I carry out this oath, and I will not break it, may I gain for ever reputation among all men for my life and for my art; but if I break it and forswear myself, may the opposite befall me — Translation by W.H.S. Jones.

Also, the first anatomist of the western world was Greek. Herophilos studied blood and its movements as well as the brain. He thought that the intellect was located in the brain itself and not in the heart. However, many ancient physicians refused the practice of anatomy and dismissed it as useless.

Slowly and hardly, but continuously, medicine was progressing forward.

On the road to modern medicine — The Romans

Roman medicine was divided into two main categories:

The first category of medicine was practiced before the arrival of the Greeks. It was largely dependent on herbs and prayers, according to the old tradition perpetrated by men like Cato The Elder. The second category of medicine was practiced after the arrival of the Greek doctor Archagathus in 200BCE. Greek medicine was incorporated into the Roman corpus of medical knowledge.

Roman Surgical Instruments of Ancient Pompeii | Giorgio Sommer, Museo di Napoli, Public domain

Among all of the different herbs used, the most common were aloe, birthwort, rhubarb, licorice, and fennel. Besides them, many instruments were used to perform surgical operations and to aid in medical assistance. Bone levers, cupping vessels, spatula probes, scalpels, bone drills, surgical saws, and even surgical scissors were all fundamental for the new developing medicine.

Various specializations started to appear as medicine started to prosper after its fusion with the Greek counterpart.

The physician is only nature’s assistant- Galen

The two most famous Roman physicians were actually from Greece. Galen of Pergamon continued Hyppocrate’s work and was a follower of its way of performing medicine. Pedanius Dioscorides wrote one of the most important ancient medical text, De Materia Medica (On Medical Material), which had been used by many doctors for over 1500 years.

Romans also built the first hospitals, though they were exclusively reserved for soldiers and slaves. However, religious elements didn’t completely disappear. When a patient was incurable, Romans invoked the help of the gods. Many sanctuaries were built in the honor of Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine and son of Apollo himself.

Conclusion

In the end, ancient medicine was profoundly influenced by religion. Nevertheless, as it moved forward, the religious element progressively lost importance. Medicine had just started its long and difficult path towards the status of science.