page_title: Medical community of ancient Rome
section_title: Public medicine
hierarchical_section_title: Medical community of ancient Rome / Importation from Greece / Public medicine
context_page_description: Medical community as used in this article refers to medical institutions and services offered to populations under the jurisdiction of the late Roman Republic and the Roman Empire.
context_section_description: A signal event in the Roman medical community was the construction of the first Aesculapium in the city of Rome, on Tiber Island. In 293 BCE some officials consulted the Sibylline Books concerning measures to be taken against the plague and were advised to bring Aesculapius from Epidaurus to Rome. The sacred serpent from Epidaurus was conferred ritually on the new temple, or, in some accounts, the serpent escaped from the ship and swam to the island. Baths have been found there as well as votive offerings (donaria) in the shape of specific organs. In classical times the center covered the entire island and included a long-term recovery center. The emperor Claudius had a law passed granting freedom to slaves who had been sent to the institution for cure but were abandoned there. This law probably facilitated state disposition of the patients and recovery of the beds they occupied. The details are not available.
  It was not the first time a temple had been constructed at Rome to ward off plague. The consul, Gnaeus Julius Mento, one of two for the year 431 BCE, dedicated a temple to Apollo medicus ("the healer"). There was also a temple to salus ("health") on the Mons Salutaris, a spur of the Quirinal. There is no record that these earlier temples possessed the medical facilities associated with an Aesculapium; in that case, the later decision to bring them in presupposes a new understanding that scientific measures could be taken against plague. The memorable description of plague at Athens during the Peloponnesian War (430 BCE) by Thucydides does not mention any measures at all to relieve those stricken with it. The dying were allowed to accumulate at the wells, which they contaminated, and the deceased to pile up there. At Rome, Cicero criticized the worship of evil powers, such as Febris ("Fever"), Dea Mefitis ("Malaria"), Dea Angerona ("Sore Throat") and Dea Scabies ("Rash").
  The medical art in early Rome was the responsibility of the pater familias, or patriarch. The last known public advocate of this point of view were the railings of Marcus Cato against Greek physicians and his insistence on passing on home remedies to his son.
  The importation of the Aesculapium established medicine in the public domain. There is no record of fees being collected for a stay at one of them, at Rome or elsewhere. The expense of an Aesculapium must have been defrayed in the same way as all temple expenses: individuals vowed to perform certain actions or contribute a certain amount if certain events happened, some of which were healings. Such a system amounts to gradated contributions by income, as the contributor could only vow what he could provide. The building of a temple and its facilities on the other hand was the responsibility of the magistrates. The funds came from the state treasury or from taxes.
caption: Tiber Island today, site of the first Aesculapium in Rome
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