In this investigation of the treatment of battle trauma in antiquity, 'treatment' is used in a double sense, both as actual medical treatment and literary 'treatment' in non-medical sources. Part I deals with the practical, medical aspects of the topic: the types of wounds likely to result from a battle, their surgical and pharmacological treatment, the question of medical services in ancient armies, medical terminology and the availability of medical knowledge. Part II discusses the use of scenes of wounding and wound treatment in literature, and Part III is a survey of the archaeological evidence. This is the first monograph to examine the topic in all its different aspects; it should be of interest to classicists, medical historians and military historians.

This book is an investigation of non-fatal injury and bloodspill in Homer's Iliad and demonstrates the crucial significance of these motifs in the epic. They are shown to be fundamental to defining heroic status and a powerful means for developing the narrative and thematic structures of the poem. The study offers a nuanced definition of the nature of mortality and immortality and shows how the motifs of injury and bloodspill explicate the plot of the poem and its ethical values. This work is the first to examine these motifs in a systematic and comprehensive investigation. Focusing exclusively on the Iliad, the book sheds new light on ideals of heroic conduct.

In Popular Medicine in Graeco-Roman Antiquity: Explorations an international group of scholars aims to give a fresh start to the study of the wide range of practices that people in Antiquity actually engaged in when they were faced with ill health.

This book explores how the Graeco-Roman world suffered from major power conflicts, imperial ambition, and ethnic, religious and racist strife.

This book teaches students and scholars of Greco-Roman medical history how to use and critically assess archaeological materials. Ancient medicine is a subject dominated by textual sources, yet there is a wealth of archaeological remains that can be used to broaden our understanding of medicine in the past. In order to use the information properly, this book explains how to ask questions of an archaeological nature, how to access different types of archaeological materials, and how to overcome problems the researcher might face. It also acts as an introduction to the archaeology of medicine for archaeologists interested in this aspect of their subject. Although the focus is on the Greco-Roman period, the methods and theories explained within the text can be applied to other periods in history. The areas covered include text as material culture, images, artifacts, spaces of medicine, and science and archaeology.

This is the first volume ever to systematically study the subject of disabilities in the Roman world. The contributors examine the topic a capite ad calcem, from head to toe. Chapters deal with mental and intellectual disability, alcoholism, visual impairment, speech disorders, hermaphroditism, monstrous births, mobility problems, osteology and visual representations of disparate bodies. The authors fully engage with literary, papyrological, and epigraphical sources, while iconography and osteo-archaeology are taken into account. Also the late ancient evidence is taken into account. Refraining from a radical constructionist standpoint, the contributors acknowledge the possibility of discovering significant differences in the way impairment was culturally viewed or assessed.

Examines the fascinating role of medicine in ancient military cultures; Shows how the ancients understood the body, patched up their warriors, and sent them back into battle; Reveals medical secrets lost during the Dark Ages; Explores how ancient civilizations' technologies have influenced modern medical practices