Medicine in Rome

When speaking of medicine in Rome, our point of interest is going to be fixed, irremediably in the army, since the Empire understood as vital that the troops were as healthy and healthy as possible. Hence, the enormous efforts carried out by Rome to ensure the health of its armies made the medicus (medical officer of the Roman combat units) recognized as characters of a superior status within the military social scale.

We can affirm, in fact, that the progress of Medicine in Rome does not begin until the new military organization is established. Before this, as we have seen in earlier times, the Romans believed deeply in superstitions, spells, and rituals to rid the Empire of disease and pestilence.

Such was the importance that was given to the health professional in Rome, that he granted doctors titles of dignity, lands and special payments upon retirement. One of the most important innovations was the creation of the Regulated Teaching of medicine which meant that in the second century both military and civilian doctors had to go through the School of Medicine.

Surgical activities were attended by true specialists, the material would already include forceps, scalpels, catheters and arrow extractors as well as a wide spectrum of analgesics and sedatives to alleviate the pains of surgery. They also boiled the instruments before use and, thanks to the knowledge of veins and arteries, surgeons knew how to use tourniquets, arterial clamps and ligatures for blood loss.

In fact, the first hospitals to be built are military, the valetudinaria where the military of the army were treated. They were built in border areas and there were separate rooms for the sick and wounded. It must be borne in mind that these buildings were exclusive for the troops since the other inhabitants were cared for in their homes or, in the worst case, as the terminally ill, deformed and unwanted newborns, they were simply left behind.

One of the most important doctors was Galen, a gladiator surgeon and known as the father of sports medicine, a supporter of massage as a preparation for physical activity, likewise he studied and meticulously described the skeleton and the muscles that move it. He discovered all this in addition to observing the wounds of the gladiators, by the dissections of pigs and monkeys that he was able to practice in Alexandria.

Aloe vera was one of the treatments most used by the Romans for healing, especially burns and skin problems.

Curious, to say the least, are the contraceptive methods used; the doctor Sorano from Ephesus in his book on Gynecology recommends the use of a mixture consisting of rancid olive oil, honey and cedar balsam that should be introduced into the uterus; There was also a very effective method that consisted of introducing a ball of wool into the vagina that was pushed up to the entrance of the cervix soaked in wine or other substances with a lumpy texture. Also, of course, there were methods that men used, such as the well-known pig or ram guts and a kind of ointment that is smeared on the penis that had the ability to kill sperm.

Thus we have a medicine in Rome focused practically on the army where diseases and remedies widely collected in treatises are discovered that will be the basis of medicine until practically the 19th century. The empire grants its subjects a series of hygiene and health elements in the cities that prevent pests and diseases related to the poor quality of life of the previous settlers.

In following articles we will see the darkness and ostracism to which science was led during the Middle Ages.