Roman medicine was the same as Greek medicine; do you agree?

Another mutual link between the two empires would be that herbal plants and remedies were still used in both era’s (for example honey) which show that they share medical knowledge on how to treat infection and diseases without having to enter surgery, in the case of the Romans. The Greeks didn’t really execute any surgery, with the exceptions of amputations and the draining of the lungs (which was one of few internal surgical operations). This suggests that the main treatments that the Greeks used were herbal remedies whereas the Romans had many more surgical procedures for different medical problems in comparison. Another key idea that both, Romans and Greeks, believed strongly in, was that gods and goddesses could cure and cause illnesses. This shows that religion played a really big part in their lives and outlines the theme of superstition in both empires. The Greeks had built Ascelepions as refuge to the sick; it was a peaceful temple where the ill could go in order to get cured. The Ascelepions were devoted to the Greek god Asclepius, the god of healing, and they firmly believed that at night, their god and his daughters would visit them and leave them cured. The Romans however appealed to their chiefly goddess of health, Salus. Gods were part of their everyday life and were expected to be powerful. When medical treatment was expensive, risky and painful, there was good reason to use every means available to help prevent illness. Asking for the help of gods would often be a first option instead of a last resort.

A huge difference between Greek and Roman medicine was public health which means what the government or whoever was in power at that time did in order to prevent or cure epidemics. The Greeks did not have an extensive public health system so there were no sewers and no supplies of running water. Many rich Greeks however, followed a highly recommended health care routine of plenty of exercise, eating healthily and keeping clean. Hippocrates accepted that ordinary people would be too poor or busy to follow such an extensive regime and therefore would be less healthy than they could be. While medicine was still in its early stages, people continued to appeal to the gods for healing and as time went on the Romans drastically changed the definition of public health. The Romans developed the first-ever public health systems and two very important factors helped them to do so, their realisation that the army needed more hygienic conditions in order to keep their soldiers as healthy as possible and to maintain their strong empire and their engineering capabilities. Like the Greeks, the Romans believed in personal health and hygiene and settlements such as army camps were sited in more healthy places away from swamps or potential threats. The Romans built aqueducts which meant they had an unlimited supply to clean running water. They also built public toilets and baths around their empires and this was to encourage cleanliness and hygiene as a whole. They thought they could minimise disease and illness by keeping their cities clean and less unorganised. Another important system that was installed were the sewers, this meant that the dirty and unclean could be flushed away and keep the streets clear and hygienic. The Romans also built the first ever real hospitals in order to look after their soldiers and keep them healthy, the Roman government had maintained the first most hygienic public health systems ever seen through the Greek empire.

Overall, I would disagree that Greek and Roman medicine were the same and instead I would argue that in fact, they are very different. Greek medicine was very much based on loose theories and ideas as they did not have a plentiful amount of evidence to back them up, as well as this, the Greeks did not dissect or perform surgical operations that allowed them to explore the human body or animals that we’re similar too. This suggests that they weren’t as familiar with anatomy and disease like the Romans were. The Romans made sure they were educated in the human body and made some important links from dissecting animals that then formed stronger ideas that were quite credible in that day and age. The Romans were much more practical people and they also showed they had more ability than the Greeks. They were able to supply their empire with an extensive public health system that was very helpful and did actually prevent epidemics and look after their people well. Greek medicine was very different to Roman medicine.