Details

ONLINE HISTORY COURSE
“Rome Wasn’t Healed in a Day: The Surgeries, Sewers, and Spas of Ancient Rome”

Course Description:

Medicine and surgery in ancient Rome was built on the foundation established by their scientific predecessors in ancient Greece. The Romans adopted the Hippocratic humoral theory (not without some debate) and also eschewed the practice of human anatomical dissection, severely limiting their knowledge and understanding of what Hippocrates would have called the “nature of the body”.

Nevertheless, Roman physicians built onto these Greek antecedents adding new therapies and new medical instrumentation. They also, as part of their mastery of civil engineering, pioneered the development of what we would now call public health architecture and facilities. The legendary engineering skills of the ancient Romans enabled the design and construction of public health facilities unrivaled in the antique world.

Join physiologist and medical historian, Dr. Jeremy Wasser, on a journey to ancient Rome to learn about the medical and surgical knowledge of the physicians of that time. Starting with a review of the Greek medical forefathers of Roman medicine we will also consider the contributions of north African (Egyptian) and Indian medical theories and practices on the development of what would become Roman medicine. We will explore the medicine and surgery practiced by the doctors for the Roman legions as they accompanied the soldiers to the far-flung corners of the empire and appreciate how medical care (for both men and animals) was organized. We will also consider the job of gladiatorial physician and learn what could and could not be done to heal the wounds of gladiatorial combat.  Come along and visit the Roman thermal baths, the sewer systems and the public toilets.  Learn what it was like to live and party like it’s 199 CE!

Virtual Classroom: Full access to an online educational platform with videos of recordings, syllabus, and reading list.

Location: LIVE INTERACTIVE ON-LINE HISTORY LECTURES

Optional Readings:
Information will be provided 2 weeks before the start of the course.

Complete syllabus will be provided 2 weeks before the start of the course.

• ALL LECTURES WILL BE RECORDED AND AVAILABLE FOR VIEWING AT YOUR CONVENIENCE IN OUR VIDEO LIBRARY FOR TWO WEEKS AFTER THE COURSE HAS ENDED.

Schedule

LECTURE 1 – Origins: The Greek, African and Indian Antecedents of Roman Medicine 

– Wednesday, October 30

We will start our journey with a discussion the Greek origins of Roman medicine. The theories and practices of the Hippocratic school and that of the lesser known, Methodics school, influenced what was to become standard Roman “operating procedure”. Many “Roman” physicians were, in fact, Greeks, some of whom were actually highly valued slaves. We will also explore the influence of the Alexandrian school of medicine in Egypt on the development of early Roman medical thinking as well as that of ancient India.

LECTURE 2 – Legionar’s Disease(s): Roman Military Medicine

– Wednesday, November 6

There were no public hospitals for civilians in ancient Rome. But there were valetudinaria, military hospitals built throughout the Roman world for the medical care of the legionaries. In this lecture we will discuss how these institutions of healing were constructed and the principles of medical care practiced in them. We will examine the Roman military medical bureaucracy and see how medical care for the soldiers (and their animals) was organized.  Legions located in different parts of the Empire were subject to a range of varying diseases and they brought with them specialists or enlisted the help of local doctors with knowledge of the local ailments. We will look at the development by the Romans of a sophisticated surgical armamentarium and how these instruments were constructed and used.

Included in this lecture will be a review of the related topic of gladiatorial medicine. Who were the doctors for the gladiators, how were they trained and what could they do (and not do) in treating wounded combatants.

LECTURE 3 – Sewers, Toilets, Aqueducts, and Thermal Baths: Public Health in the Roman World

– Wednesday, November 13

In our final lecture, we will explore the intersection of civil engineering and medicine by considering the public health concepts and facilities of the ancient Romans. Major Roman cities, even those far from the center of empire in Rome (like Cologne in the Rhineland) were built according to strict guiding principles as described in De Architectura, the ten books of Roman civil engineering by the former legionary and military engineer, Marcus Vitruvius Pollio. The Romans gave the western world sophisticated sewer systems (adapted from those of the Etruscans) and the first public toilets. They constructed aqueducts to bring in fresh water from considerable distances, and, of course, built thermal spas. We will take a deep dive, so to speak,  into the Roman custom of thermal bathing and examine how and where the thermae were built, how they were used, and what was believed about their medical benefits.

Instructor

Jeremy Wasser, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Physiology at Texas A&M University. Dr. Wasser serves as the program leader for study abroad programs in Germany, focused on the history of medicine, providing future doctors and biomedical science researchers with a foundation in physiology and the medical humanities. Along with his scientific publications he has written and lectured on the culture of disease, the history of public health and health policy, the history of human experimentation, and the role of physiological education in contemplative practices. Additionally, Wasser’s training in opera and theatre inform the unique personas that he creates for lectures in the history of medicine and performances related to science and storytelling.