Ancient Roman medicine

Question 1

What did the Romans believe caused disease?

Answer 1

The Roman empire conquered the Greek empire and borrowed many beliefs. This means that the Roman beliefs on disease were very similar to the Greeks. They believed:

1. Disease was a punishment from the gods.
2. Disease was caused by the imbalance of humours in the body.

Question 2

How did the Romans treat disease?

Answer 2

1. They used many herbal remedies. A doctor had access to over 600 herbal remedies passed down through generations. Historians believed 1 in 5 of them worked.
2. Wealthier people visited doctors. These people were often Greeks and have studied to become a Hippocratic doctor, or old soldiers who understand first aid. Others were just con men who had no knowledge of medicine a all.
3. Votives and praying. Shops sold models of body parts. People bought the parts corresponding to where their pain is coming from, put them in temples and prayed to get better.
4. ‘Miracle cures’. Some salesmen sold medicine that they claimed cured everything. They were of course, fake.

Question 3

Why did the Romans make advancements in surgery?

Answer 3

The Romans didn’t really care about what caused disease, they were more interested in expanding their empire. Surgery suited their practical needs since surgeons treated wounded soldiers. The Romans perfected methods for simple plastic surgery and setting broken bones.

Question 4

What was Roman public health like?

Answer 4

The Roman government was very concerned with the health of the general public because a healthy public meant a healthy army. They realised that building cities in places with dirty water like swamps caused disease (despite not knowing the real cause of disease). They built cities in places with access to clean water or aqueducts to carry clean water to cities like Rome with poor access to clean water.

Question 5

Why was water important to Roman public health?

Answer 5

Dirty water spread lots of diseases like diarrhoea. Water was used in many Roman public health facilities such as public fountains, public toilets and public bathhouses.

Question 6

What were Roman bathhouses like?

Answer 6

Most public bathhouses were funded by the government so they were either very cheap or they were free, this meant that both rich and poor can go. They were not just places of hygiene. any were huge complexes with shops, restaurants, gyms, gardens, libraries… They were places for people to socialise as well as keep clean. When a new Roman town is built, one of the first structures built is a public bathhouse.

Question 7

What were Galen’s contributions to medicine?

Answer 7

1. He rescued many of Hippocrates ideas and his popularity helped spread them.
2. He wrote over 300 books which were passed down the ages, thus continuing medical development.
3. He developed the theory of the four humours, saying treatments should use opposites.
4. He carried out many animal dissections since human dissections were banned.

Question 8

Where did Galen go wrong?

Answer 8

1. He believed the human jaw was made up of 2 bones, it is in fact just one.
2. He believed the heart was divided into two parts to carry two separate lots of blood around the body.
3. He believed the liver was constantly making new blood from food and that blood was being used up by the body.

Question 9

Why did Galen’s ideas survive for so long?

Answer 9

The church supported Galen’s ideas since he believed in the soul. It preserved his writings and taught his ideas to future generations.

Question 10

Factors

Answer 10

Government:
The government paid for all of the public health and the construction of public health facilities.
Religion:
In the early Roman empire, the Romans believed in Greek gods and used Asclepions as a form of treatment. By the end of the Roman empire, the Romans adapted Christianity and the church helped preserve Galen’s ideas.
War:
The Roman empire depended on war to expand. They needed to keep their army healthy so they also kept the public healthy.
Communication:
Galen wrote hundreds of books that were preserved by the church for future generations.
Individuals:
Galen made many discoveries about the human body as well as helped in the preservation of medical ideas.
Public health:
The Romans built bathhouses, aqueducts, public fountains and other things to keep the public healthy.
Doctors and nursing:
Doctors were not seen as important as surgeons in the Roman empire until Galen showed up.
Surgery:
The Romans made huge advancements in surgery since they went to war that much. doctors perfected methods for simple plastic surgery and setting broken bones.
Disease and treatments:
Surgery, theory of the four humours.