CLASSICS 2902 ANCIENT MEDICINE APPROVED FINAL EXAM QUESTIONS WITH CORRECT ANSWERS 100% CORRECT LATEST 2026

CLASSICS 2902 ANCIENT MEDICINE APPROVED FINAL EXAM QUESTIONS WITH CORRECT ANSWERS 100% CORRECT LATEST 2026 Etruscan & Roman History - Answers - 1st millennium BCE: 2 major ethnic groups - Etruscans (indigenous) & Latins (Indo-European) - Rome on Tiber River; forming the border between Etruscans & Latins (6th c BCE) - Closeness between ethnic groups recounted in Roman histories & origin myths - IMPORTANT: mixing of cultures & cultural exchange 5th & 4th c BCE: Etruscans lose... - Answers Power to Roman aristocrats (patricians), who form the Republic (2 consuls & Senate) Internal strife: - Answers Shared government with lower class plebeians (2 tribunes) Important concept - Answers Conflict; elite vs lower class Expansion based on: - Answers Expansion based on military successes (on peninsula, then Carthage, Greece and all the rest) Rise of Rome & Alexander's conquests By 3rd CE: - Answers Control Greece & western Anatolia; 1st c: Egypt; end of Republic Attitudes & Relevance for medicine (5) - Answers - Expansion bad - Pliny & Cato most vocal; Romans grow lax and too fond of luxuries - IMPORTANT: Greek culture permeated Italy, therefore, medical concepts shared between Greek, Etruscan & Roman medical cultures - Illness comes from gods - Characterizations of Greek gods adopted/ transported to Rome Religion & Culture - Answers - Public vs private worship (public gods vs household gods) - Forms of worship access power over deities through ritual actions (do ut des) - Healing not limited to either sphere: Roman piety = consult all deities involved - Healing can occur among Capitoline deities (Jupiter, Juno, Minerva) or private gods Cosmology - Answers - Etruscans: division of sky into 16 sections (interpretation of divine messages) - Etruscan gods form councils (cf. Mesopotamia) - "Good to bad" spectrum: east to west - Romans: division of sky into 4 sections - Negative to positive: left to right Sacrifices & Medicine - Answers Sacrifices = point of contact between human & divine; maintenance of relationship 3 basic sacrifice rituals - Answers 1) burnt offering for celestial deities 2) blood offering for underworld (chthonic) deities 3) libation & bloodless sacrifices for ancestors Blood offering: - Answers Relationship between living beings & earth Etruscan ritual sacrifices influence: - Answers Roman religion & medicine; rationalize & accept medical theories/ teachings about blood (e.g. bloodletting as sacrifice) Healing deities (7) - Answers Ascelepius, Aplu, Diana, Hercle, Isis, Tiana, Menrva EVERY GOD CAN CAUSE & CURE ILLNESS Ascelepius - Answers Asklepieion (pl. Asklepieia) popular pilgrimage site Temple on Tiber Island on healing spring (most popular with slaves) Aplu - Answers Etruscan version of Apollo Late Republic: Aplu — Apollo Healing aspects of Greek Apollo transferred to Roman version Name Aplu no longer used Diana - Answers Etruscan healing goddess — Artemis CULTURAL EXCHANGE Childbirth & general healing Hellenization: loss of childbirth association; general healing deity Hercle - Answers Hercle — Herakles (Greek) — Hercules (Roman) Healing linked to physical prowess Military nature of Rome; what it means to be a "manly man" Isis - Answers Late Republican medical culture (alliance with Ptolemaic Cleopatra) Increasing popularity; longest lasting ancient cult Associations: health & safety Tinia - Answers Jupiter Head of parthenon; most influential for healing Divine consent to cause harm (cf. Mesopotamia) Jupiter associated with childbirth Tinia births Menrva (Athena) vs Zeus (Jupiter) birthing Athena Menrva - Answers Etruscan goddess Later Minerva (Roman) from Athena (goddess of wisdom & technology) Menrva significant healing role (a ton of votive offerings!) Development from Etruscan context makes Minerva patron of physicians (Minerva Medica on coinage) Philosophy - Answers Hippocrates, Epicurus, Plato, Aristotle influential on Roman schools Methodists, Dogmatists/ Rationalists, & Empiricists (Hellenistic philosophies) Dogmatists: - Answers Theory key; "internal causal base of disease" (etiology) Empiricists: - Answers Experience & Pragmatism Methodists: - Answers Middle course; body made of invisible entities ("corpuscles" & space in between i.e. "pores") Disease due to movement of corpuscles/ atoms; kinda use theory of humours Archaeology sources - Answers Sanctuaries, shrines, temples Remains of medical recipes/ instruments Remains of medicinal gardens Medical kits (mostly Pompeii) Textual Sources - Answers Latin medical papyri (Egypt) "Iatromagical" papyri: protective charms & amulets Vindolanda tablets (Hadrian's wall): eye ailments, lists of wounded soldiers Private letters Encyclopedic works (Pliny & Celsus) Medical texts: Dioscorides, Rufus of Ephesus, Soranus, Galen "Popular literature" (Martial, Juvenal) CATO!!! On Agriculture: medicinal plants Spotlight: Pliny - Answers Pliny the Elder (23-79 CE) "Roman way of healing" Cato as preserver of Roman virtues Cabbage as cure all Similar philosophical views: Stoicism Quality of life over quantity; don't artificially prolong life Natural History: comprehensive yet superficial TENSION: Luxury, Greek culture Anatomy & Physiology - Answers Generally based on Greek/ Hellenistic developments No one theory dominated Roman medicine Morals, social status, health connected: thin body = poverty, old age, sickness OR moral quality & personal discipline 2 general themes: - Answers 1) balance of substances 2) regular flow/ movement of substances necessary Abundance of fat: - Answers affluence & authority (coinage of Nero to Vespasian) Gaelen Biography - Answers Born: Aug/Sept. 129 CE at/near Pergamon Elite Age 16: begins study of medicine Extensive anatomical training (~10 yrs): Pergamon, Smyrna, Corinth, Alexandria 157 CE: Surgeon of gladiators in Pergamon G 162 CE - Answers 162 CE: Travels to Rome; part of upper social circle G 166-169 CE: - Answers Return to Pergamon (avoid plague) Recalled to Rome by Marcus Aurelius Imperial physician (esp. for Commodus) G After 192 CE: - Answers Return to Pergamon G 210CE: - Answers Dies? G Philosophy (7) - Answers Physicians need philosophical knowledge Logic required for diagnosis Ethics needed for patient interaction Stoics, Platonists, Aristotelians, Epicureans Conflicting doctrines led him to "scientific demonstration" (logic + evidence) Weakness to commit to one sect Theoretical knowledge & practical experience (Empiricism) Galen's View of Physiology - Answers Influenced by Aristotle & Hippocrates (4 humours) Plato's tripartite soul G View of the body: - Answers Heart = furnace; stomach = oven (pepsis) Digestion — juice (chymos); juice sent to liver Liver: origin of veins; venomous blood distributes nutrients Galen on anatomy - Answers Animal dissection & vivisection important; intimate connection to physiology Goal: demonstrate bodily functions through anatomy Argumentation from theoretical to clinical GALEN IS THE BEST: if others cannot recreate his results it's because THEY SUCK G Demonstrations - Answers showmanship + rhetorical techniques to charm intellectuals G public demonstrations - Answers care of wounded in hands of exceptional doctor; show philosophical points (seat of soul) Galen's view on food - Answers Distinct connection between food & pharmacology Diet is an important aspect of regimen Foods roles - Answers 1) Nutrition 2) Drug On Properties of Food - Answers Written late in his career (?) Goal: describe effects of food on the body Mentions nutritional value of food + physiological & pathological effects on body Food used to prevent illness, maintain health & treat diseases Galen's Humoral Theory - Answers 4 humours: blood, phlegm (mucus), yellow bile, black bile Balance = health Not found in food, just potential of producing humour Blood produced in moderate heat; yellow bile or phlegm if food was hot or cold Blood: - Answers separate fluid; blood from wounds mixed with bile & phlegm Yellow bile: - Answers range of fluids; varying colour Black bile: - Answers some sort of clack fluid (black stool, blood in urine?) black bile = overheated yellow bile Epilepsy in Antiquity Sources (4) - Answers Hammurabi Code: bennu; legal advice Ebers Papyrus: nsji ("nesejet") - "sent by god" Other Assyrian, Babylonian, and Mesopotamian sources: supernatural causes Sushruta Samhita: apasmára: neurological problem Hippocratic On the Sacred Disease: brain dysfunction; curable using rational methods (diet, drugs) rather than ritual Things to consider when reading the Sacred Disease (7) - Answers Knowledge of anatomy & physiology Etiology Pathophysiology - blockages Risk factors & prognosis Clinical observation + rational thinking Proactive vs. reactive approaches Patient care Key notions - Answers 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 - Answers Curative properties of human remains well-established 3 approaches to remedies using human blood: