CLASSICS 2902 ANCIENT MEDICINE ACTUAL
FINALS QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS SET A+
✔✔Things to consider when reading the Sacred Disease (7) - ✔✔Knowledge of
anatomy & physiology
Etiology
Pathophysiology - blockages
Risk factors & prognosis
Clinical observation + rational thinking
Proactive vs. reactive approaches
Patient care
✔✔Key notions - ✔✔supernatural elements
contaminated patient —> social stigma
On the Sacred Disease mentions shameful nature of seizures: contortions, bladder
evacuations
Perceived uncleanliness gave rise to apotropaic practices (superstitious elements): "the
disease which is spit upon" [Plautus, Captivi, III.4]
Apuleius' Apologia: slave Thalles must eat alone; maybe sent away
Practice of covering the epileptic's head (folk medicine); sign of sin
Morbus comitiales: assembly (comitia) must be dispersed if someone has a seizure
✔✔Medicinal cannibalism + 3 approaches - ✔✔Curative properties of human remains
well-established
3 approaches to remedies using human blood:
1. Magic-religious: purification/ appeasement of deity; cf. Pliny: smear mouth of epileptic
with blood; Persian magician Osthanes the "destroyer of human laws and mastermind
of monsters"
2. Rational medicine (upper high medicine): topical application
3. Folk-medicinal (lower high medicine): consumption [ONLY ROMAN]
✔✔Cultural significance of gladiator's blood - ✔✔Use of blood widespread (ancient &
early modern physicians)
, HC: pollutant therapy: "polluted blood of violence," menstrual blood, "corpse food" to
fight impurity
Celsus: 1st Roman writer to mention use of gladiator's blood
similia similibus remedy
✔✔Etruscan origins: - ✔✔Fallen gladiators as sacrificial victims (blood for chthonic
deities)
Powerful curative substance
✔✔Folk-medicine vs epileptic surgery - ✔✔Professional practitioners recommend
surgical treatments
Rational medicine primarily for wealthy, educated patients
Drugs or changed diet requires certain level of wealth
Surgical methods risky and invasive
Folk medicine (use of blood) relatively safe and affordable (?)
Fear of epilepsy: try whatever may help
✔✔The ideal body & problematic definitions - ✔✔"The perfected physical form" (male)
Few references to "disability"
Rome: no distinction between mental and physical
Mental deficit (e.g. melancholy) due to physical problem (brain, heart, stomach)
✔✔"Disability:" - ✔✔social label connected to issues of power & status
✔✔How did the Romans define disability? - ✔✔Roman definition: not just deviation from
the "norm"; Galen: no one embodies "the ideal"
Disability defined by social function —> how severe the "impairment" is varies from
place to place
✔✔Gellius on disability - ✔✔difference between "disease" & "defect" (can someone
work?); defect prevents work ("disability")
✔✔Can people with physical impairments function in ancient Roman society? - ✔✔Yes
(with caveats)
Urban vs rural; rich vs poor
Integration within family & community is key; eases economic burden of caretakers
Presence & strength of religious & occupational groups (e.g. fraternities)
✔✔Visual impairment: - ✔✔Hindrance to full cultural participation (but there were
supports)
Latin vocab: distinction between degrees of visual impairment; possible compensation
BUT: cultural & moral implication of blindness
FINALS QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS SET A+
✔✔Things to consider when reading the Sacred Disease (7) - ✔✔Knowledge of
anatomy & physiology
Etiology
Pathophysiology - blockages
Risk factors & prognosis
Clinical observation + rational thinking
Proactive vs. reactive approaches
Patient care
✔✔Key notions - ✔✔supernatural elements
contaminated patient —> social stigma
On the Sacred Disease mentions shameful nature of seizures: contortions, bladder
evacuations
Perceived uncleanliness gave rise to apotropaic practices (superstitious elements): "the
disease which is spit upon" [Plautus, Captivi, III.4]
Apuleius' Apologia: slave Thalles must eat alone; maybe sent away
Practice of covering the epileptic's head (folk medicine); sign of sin
Morbus comitiales: assembly (comitia) must be dispersed if someone has a seizure
✔✔Medicinal cannibalism + 3 approaches - ✔✔Curative properties of human remains
well-established
3 approaches to remedies using human blood:
1. Magic-religious: purification/ appeasement of deity; cf. Pliny: smear mouth of epileptic
with blood; Persian magician Osthanes the "destroyer of human laws and mastermind
of monsters"
2. Rational medicine (upper high medicine): topical application
3. Folk-medicinal (lower high medicine): consumption [ONLY ROMAN]
✔✔Cultural significance of gladiator's blood - ✔✔Use of blood widespread (ancient &
early modern physicians)
, HC: pollutant therapy: "polluted blood of violence," menstrual blood, "corpse food" to
fight impurity
Celsus: 1st Roman writer to mention use of gladiator's blood
similia similibus remedy
✔✔Etruscan origins: - ✔✔Fallen gladiators as sacrificial victims (blood for chthonic
deities)
Powerful curative substance
✔✔Folk-medicine vs epileptic surgery - ✔✔Professional practitioners recommend
surgical treatments
Rational medicine primarily for wealthy, educated patients
Drugs or changed diet requires certain level of wealth
Surgical methods risky and invasive
Folk medicine (use of blood) relatively safe and affordable (?)
Fear of epilepsy: try whatever may help
✔✔The ideal body & problematic definitions - ✔✔"The perfected physical form" (male)
Few references to "disability"
Rome: no distinction between mental and physical
Mental deficit (e.g. melancholy) due to physical problem (brain, heart, stomach)
✔✔"Disability:" - ✔✔social label connected to issues of power & status
✔✔How did the Romans define disability? - ✔✔Roman definition: not just deviation from
the "norm"; Galen: no one embodies "the ideal"
Disability defined by social function —> how severe the "impairment" is varies from
place to place
✔✔Gellius on disability - ✔✔difference between "disease" & "defect" (can someone
work?); defect prevents work ("disability")
✔✔Can people with physical impairments function in ancient Roman society? - ✔✔Yes
(with caveats)
Urban vs rural; rich vs poor
Integration within family & community is key; eases economic burden of caretakers
Presence & strength of religious & occupational groups (e.g. fraternities)
✔✔Visual impairment: - ✔✔Hindrance to full cultural participation (but there were
supports)
Latin vocab: distinction between degrees of visual impairment; possible compensation
BUT: cultural & moral implication of blindness
