Medics and fieldhospitals in Rome

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KalaVelka
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Medics and fieldhospitals in Rome

#1

Post by KalaVelka » 21 Sep 2003, 10:58

Where there anykind of medics or fieldhospitals in Rome's Legions? If there was, what kind of treatment did wounded legioners get? Was there any usual fate for the wounded?

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Gwynn Compton
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#2

Post by Gwynn Compton » 22 Sep 2003, 13:28

I'll have a dig round for you if I get a chance, but the reality was, there was little in the way of true medical assistance for Roman Legionaries.

It is likely, though I'm not sure, that some sort of medical staff followed the Legions, but treatment would have been primative at best. Cortorizing wounds with hot iron would have been common place, and amputations the only ways to deal with serious wounds. In most cases, the treatment itself was probably as dangerous as the originaly injury.

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#3

Post by KalaVelka » 22 Sep 2003, 13:57

And ofcorse there wasnt anykind of anaesthetic agent like alcohol available? I got Gladiators (yeah i know it isnt so realistic movie as it could be) special edition DVD and here is cutoff scenes about fieldhospital in Germania after the beginning battle. So it is all bogus?

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#4

Post by Attila the Hunking » 23 Sep 2003, 02:10

Cortorizing wounds with hot iron would have been common place, and amputations the only ways to deal with serious wounds. In most cases, the treatment itself was probably as dangerous as the originaly injury.
I don't have the sufficient info about roman medics available either, yet I would be quite suprised if this is true. This description rather fits to medical
medical treatment in medieval times, but not to the age of ancient Rome, ImO. The romans adopted much knowledge from the greeks (remember Hippocrates?) , so their medics could not have been that bad at all. AFAIk, the roman legions had regular, trained medical personnel attached to them.

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#5

Post by KalaVelka » 23 Sep 2003, 06:09

Thanks for the replays.

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#6

Post by Gwynn Compton » 23 Sep 2003, 23:44

Attila the Hunking wrote:I don't have the sufficient info about roman medics available either, yet I would be quite suprised if this is true. This description rather fits to medical
medical treatment in medieval times, but not to the age of ancient Rome, ImO. The romans adopted much knowledge from the greeks (remember Hippocrates?) , so their medics could not have been that bad at all. AFAIk, the roman legions had regular, trained medical personnel attached to them.
While they did learn from the Greeks, it strikes me as unlikely that the field hospitals would have people trained in these matters. Greek knowledge was the persuit of the wealthy and powerful. However, nothing in my sources can contradict this, and I don't have any books specifically on the Legions. If anyone does, it'd be highly appreciated.

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#7

Post by Gwynn Compton » 23 Sep 2003, 23:56

Ahhh, found something

http://hsc.virginia.edu/hs-library/hist ... /textj.htm
Pliny, in his Natural History, says that the first doctor (medicus) to come to Rome was Arcagathus, who arrived from the Greek Peloponnese in 219 BCE and was well received. Arcagathus was accorded the rights of citizenship and a medical shop was set up at state expense for his use. Prior to this time, Rome had no physicians and only home remedies were used. Because Arcagathus was an expert wound surgeon (uulnerarius), he immediately became popular; however his popularity did not last. His vigorous use of the knife and cautery soon earned him the title “Executioner” (Carnifex). From there it was downhill for the medical cause in Rome. Over 100 years lapsed before we hear that another Greek physician (Asclepiades of Bithynia, ca. 100 BCE) had taken up residence in Rome.

Before the arrival of Arcagathus, early Roman medicine was agriculturally based, having its spirit derived from the farm. Early authors of agricultural treatises, such as Cato the Elder and Columella, both from the early second century BCE, had as much to say about medicine, or home remedies, as they had to say about growing seasons, animal husbandry and slave discipline. In Cato’s time, the pater familias, or head of the family, was the dispenser of remedies to his household because his knowledge of the farm and its needs qualified him to deal with matters of health. Characteristic of early Roman medicine was a reliance upon one or two remedies. According to Pliny, the “early Romans gave wool awesome powers”, confirming the religious-agricultural context of early remedies. Unwashed wool, according to the early traditions, dipped into a mixture of pounded rue and fat, was good for bruises and swellings. Rams’ wool, washed in cold water and soaked in oil, was used to soothe uterine inflammations. Wool dipped into a mixture of oil, sulphur, vinegar, pitch and soda cured lumbago. Yet for all its uses, for Cato at least, wool was not the cure-all that cabbage was. Cato advocated not only the consumption of cabbage itself to fend off illness, but the consumption of the urine of a person who has eaten cabbage.

Some of Cato’s cures were applicable to humans as well as to the livestock on the farm:

“If you have reason to fear sickness, give the patient/oxen before they get sick the following remedy: 3 grains of salt, 3 laurel leaves, 3 leek leaves, 3 spikes of leek, 3 of garlic, 3 grains of incense, 3 plants of Sabine herb, 3 leaves of rue, 3 stalks of bryony, 3 white beans, 3 live coals, and 3 pints of wine. You must gather, macerate, and administer all these things while standing, and he who administers the remedy must be fasting. Administer to each ox or to the patient for three days, and divide it in such a way that when you have administered three doses to each, you have used it all. See to it that the patient and the one who administers are both standing, and use a wooden vessel.”

Magical connotation is clear from the continual use of three of each ingredient. The greater part of this remedy consists of foodstuffs from the pantry. Possibly the standing position is a remnant of psychological factors pointing to an earlier time of medicine man or shaman. The insistence upon a wooden bowl shows this recipe to be an ancient one.

The Romans inherited some of their ideas of anatomy and medicine from their Etruscan ancestors and adapted them to the practice of the official state religion, specifically in the practice of hepatoscopy, or reading the divine signals in animal livers. Models of bronze livers which were used by priests to interpret omens within the liver have been unearthed in Etruria. Hepatoscopy had its origins in Near Eastern practice and was not performed by anyone except state-appointed priests.

Thus Roman medicine can be divided into three distinct areas: (1) the “practical” medicine of the pater familias, that is, home remedies based upon an agricultural context; (2) the state religion as handed down from the Etruscans; and (3) the private practitioner using Greek medical principles.

The opposition of Cato the Elder and other traditionalists to the introduction of Greek medicine in Rome by Arcagathus was the result of several factors: political strife in the Roman nobility, hostility against Greek culture, fear of Arcagathus’ surgical and pharmaceutical treatments and loathing for the mercenary character of the medical profession, which was regarded as a sign of luxury. In Cato’s day, that is the period following the Second Punic War in the early second century BCE, sumptuary laws were passed to combat conspicuous consumption. The introduction of Greek doctors into the households of the Roman nobility was seen as a degenerative sign of the Romans succumbing to Greek culture and practices.

Horace said “Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit”. He understood that political domination, the occupation of territory by armies, does not necessarily mean real conquest. Horace’s statement applied to medicine as to other branches of culture.
And

http://hsc.virginia.edu/hs-library/hist ... /textk.htm
As a profession, medicine was more highly regarded in Greece than in Rome, however physicians were basically craftsmen, probably enjoying some esteem among their customers, but not being part of the socio-political elite. Roman doctors did not fare so well. Many doctors were freed Greek slaves, hence the social standing of doctors was quite low. Because cure rates were so low, many people were skeptical or even scornful of doctors. Their skepticism is easily understood. Roman literature contains much which tells us about the reactions of individuals to medicine and doctors. To listen to the Roman authors is to hear tales of quackery at all levels of society. Our sources often describe prevalent chicanery:
“Some doctors charge the most excessive prices for the most worthless medicines and drugs, and others in the craft attempt to deal with and treat diseases they obviously do not understand.” (Gargilius Martialis, Preface, 7)

There were no licensing boards and no formal requirements for entrance to the profession. Anyone could call himself a doctor. If his methods were successful, he attracted more patients, if not, he found himself another profession.

“Until recently, Diaulus was a doctor; now he is an undertaker. He is still doing as an undertaker, what he used to do as a doctor.” (Martial, Epigrams 1.47)

“You are now a gladiator, although until recently you were an ophthalmologist. You did the same thing as a doctor that you do now as a gladiator.” (Martial, Epigrams 8.74)

Medical training consisted mostly of apprentice work. Men trained as doctors by following around another doctor.

“I felt a little ill and called Dr. Symmachus. Well, you came, Symmachus, but you brought 100 medical students with you. One hundred ice cold hands poked and jabbed me. I didn’t have a fever, Symmachus, when I called you, but now I do.” (Martial, Epigrams 5.9)

Plutarch grumbles that practitioners used all sorts of questionable methods to gain patients, ranging from escorting the prospective patient home from bars to sharing dirty jokes with him.


DOCTORS AND PATIENTS
Evidence for the public mistrust of physicians is plentiful, including these epigrams from the Greek Anthology:
“Socles, promising to set Diodorus’ crooked back straight, piled three solid stones, each four feet square, on the hunchback’s spine. He was crushed and died, but he became straighter than a ruler.” (Greek Anthology XI, 120)

“Alexis the physician purged by a clyster five patients at one time, and five other by drugs; he visited five, and again he rubbed five with ointment. And for all there was one night, one medicine, one coffin-maker, one tomb, one Hades, one lamentation.” (Greek Anthology XI, 122) “Phidon did not purge me with a clyster or even feel me, but feeling feverish I remembered his name and died.”(Greek Anthology XI, 118)
And finally, on the topic at hand

http://hsc.virginia.edu/hs-library/hist ... /textm.htm
Before Hellenistic influence, the Roman legion did not contain any medical services. The common practice among professional generals of the Hellenistic world was to campaign in the company of a personal physician. Literary sources leave us with the distinct impression that the wounded treated by the physicians present in the army were of the higher ranks, and there is little indication that the common soldiers had access to medical care. Instead, some troops functioned as medical staff as the need arose. It is to the Romans’ credit that they recognized the need for such a service, but the solution was not a medical corps whereby trained physicians became part of the army. The Romans clearly distinguished between the treatment of the “sick” and the “wounded”. The wounded were cared for, as far as possible, by fellow soldiers on the fields, and the transportable sick were placed in ualetudinaria (hospitals) along with the severely wounded.
The medici (doctors) treating the wounded on Trajan’s column are dressing superficial wounds and their uniforms are identical with that of the soldiers they are aiding. Trajan’s column would thus bear out the general picture: the medici were those soldiers of a legion or of an auxiliary detachment who had demonstrated their capabilities for wound dressing and a primitive surgery, but who were not themselves trained physicians.

Image
Trajan's column, Rome, dedicated 113 CE: Soldiers aiding their wounded comrades: Trajan's column commemorated the emperor Trajan's Dacian Wars which were fought at the beginning of the second century CE. This scene illustrates the treatment of the wounded under battlefield conditions. Note that the uniforms of the medics rendering aid do not differ from those of the regular soldiers.


The Roman poet Virgil (70-19 BCE) composed an epic poem, titled the Aeneid, about the events leading up to the foundation of Rome. It follows the adventures of the Trojan hero Aeneas who was forced to do battle with the native inhabitants of Italy upon immigrating there from Troy. In one of the climactic scenes at the poem’s conclusion (Aeneid XII.383-440), Aeneas is wounded in the thigh by an arrow shaft hurled by an anonymous soldier in the enemy camp. After the wounded Aeneas is helped back to camp, the surgeon Iapyx comes to Aeneas’ aid by using forceps to remove the arrow. Since the surgeon is unable to withdraw the shaft, Venus, Aeneas’ divine mother, intervenes. From across the Mediterranean at Mt. Ida near Troy, she brings dittany, an unknown herb to heal the wound. Cicero, in the philosophical treatise De Divinatione, says that dittany was supposed to make arrows fall out of goats’ bodies. Although he was unable to help Aeneas, Iapyx was given his skill by Apollo himself to practice ingloriously the “silent arts”, i.e., medicine. Apollo’s three realms are music, prophecy and healing. Only in the first two is the voice used, hence medicine is the silent art. The idea of obscurity is included because the profession of medicine does not lead to great fame.

Image
Wall painting from Casa di Sirico, Pompeii, 1st Century BCE: Aeneas receiving medical attention from Iapyx: A wounded Aeneas is carried off the battlefield and taken to the physician to remove the dart from his thigh with forceps.

Image
Drawing of Attic Black Figured Vase, 6th Century BCE, National Museum Athens: Sthenelos bandaging Diomedes' index finger:The episode portrayed here is not mentioned in any extant saga of the Trojan War. In the Hippocratic treatise In the Surgery, the author states bluntly that "he who desires to practice surgery must go to war."
So the common Legionarre did not infact have a trained physician to care for them, while the generals did, which in itself isn't terribly surprising.

Gwynn

Gwynn Compton
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#8

Post by Gwynn Compton » 23 Sep 2003, 23:58

Curses, I don't know why the pictures aren't working now. Follow the links to see the illistrations.

Gwynn

Attila the Hunking
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#9

Post by Attila the Hunking » 23 Sep 2003, 23:59

Check out THIS interesting BBC Site about the famed roman physician Claudius Galen.
An outbreak of plague in Rome forced him back to Pergamum, but in 168-9 he returned to Italy to serve as physician to Lucius Verus and Marcus Aurelius during a military campaign in Northern Italy. Galen then went back to Rome with Aurelius to serve as his personal physician. He would later serve as physician to Aurelius's successors, Commodius and Septimius Severus.
Doesn't this indicate that there were indeed people trained in these matters serving alongside with the roman army?
Galen's work was essenial to western medical treatment up until the renaissance era.

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#10

Post by Attila the Hunking » 24 Sep 2003, 00:09

The common practice among professional generals of the Hellenistic world was to campaign in the company of a personal physician.
Allright. Thus, the service of people Galen must have been rather restricted to high-ranking officers. :idea:

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#11

Post by Gwynn Compton » 26 Sep 2003, 01:39

Heh, I was just about to mention that. Your quoted text points out that the said physician was hanging around the Imperial family, rather than the common soldier. :)

Gwynn

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#12

Post by g.l.s.h » 26 Sep 2003, 07:52

I know a certain archaeologist who dealt with this issue. She even wrote an article or two about finds froving the existance of a roman army field hospital, and also of cupping vessels being found at the same site. Ill be able to look for those articles this monday.

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#13

Post by g.l.s.h » 30 Sep 2003, 17:26

Yes they did have field hospitals in any Roman legion. Archeological excavations have identified such units in Roman camps in the Rhine area. Medical tools, probably gathered in “kits” led to the identification of those units. Following that, German archaeologists have identified remains of Legion field hospitals, in other sites in Italy, and lately in Legion camp “B” , part of the Roman siege compound of the Massada fortress in the Judean desert. Surgeon tools were also found there.

The article that deals with the last site, quotes two main English written sources for that issue:

1. Davies R. W. “Service in the Roman army” pages 209-289 under the title: The Roman military medical services. (Oxford 1989)


2. 2. Scarborough J. “Roman medicine” (New York 1969)

These sources claim that sick/wounded soldiers were kept in specific parts of the camps and were organized in a temporary unit. Some times, when there were many such wounded soldiers, they were organized in special combat units, probably reserve ones

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