Medicine and Markets in the Graeco-Roman World and Beyond: Essays on Ancient Medicine in Honour of Vivian Nutton

245 Pages·2020·2.496 MB·English

by  Rebecca Flemming (editor), Laurence Totelin (editor)

MEDICINE AND MARKETS IN THE
GRAECO-ROMAN WORLD AND BEYOND

M
EDICINE
AND
M
ARKETS
IN THE
G -R
RAECO OMAN
W
ORLD
AND
B
EYOND
E
SSAYS ON
A M
NCIENT EDICINE
IN HONOUR OF
V N
IVIAN UTTON
Editors
Laurence M. V. Totelin
and
Rebecca Flemming
The Classical Press of Wales
First published in 2020 by
The Classical Press of Wales
15 Rosehill Terrace, Swansea SA1 6JN
Tel: [phone]
www.classicalpressofwales.co.uk
Distributor in North America
ISD,
70 Enterprise Drive, Suite 2,
Bristol, CT 06010, USA
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
www.isdistribution.com
© 2020
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.
ISBN 978-1-910589-78-6
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Typeset by Louise Jones, and printed and bound in the UK by Gomer Press, Llandysul,
Ceredigion, Wales
–––––––––––––––––
The Classical Press of Wales, an independent venture, was founded in 1993, initially to
support the work of classicists and ancient historians in Wales and their collaborators from
further afield. More recently it has published work initiated by scholars internationally . While
retaining a special loyalty to Wales and the Celtic countries, the Press welcomes scholarly
contributions from all parts of the world.
The symbol of the Press is the Red Kite. This bird, once widespread in Britain, was reduced by
1905 to some five individuals confined to a small area known as ‘The Desert of Wales’ – the
upper Tywi valley. Geneticists report that the stock was saved from terminal inbreeding by the
arrival of one stray female bird from Germany. After much careful protection, the Red Kite now
thrives – in Wales and beyond.
iv
CONTENTS
Page
Acknowledgements vii
List of contributors ix
Abbreviations and sigla xiii
Introduction: Vivian Nutton and the rise of ancient medicine xix
Rebecca Flemming
PARTI
Prices and Exchange
1. The cost of health: rich and poor in imperial Rome 1
Véronique Boudon-Millot
2. Healing correspondence: letters and remedy exchange
in the Graeco-Roman world 17
Laurence M. V. Totelin
3. Dioscorides on beavers 37
John Scarborough
4. The cost of a baby: how much did it cost to hire a wet-nurse
in Roman Egypt? 41
Antonio Ricciardettoand Danielle Gourevitch
PARTII
Pluralism and Diversity
5. A return to cases and the pluralism of ancient medical
traditions 71
G.E.R. Lloyd
6. Malaria, childbirth and the cult of Artemis 87
Elizabeth Craik
v
7. Medicine, markets and movement in the Bronze Age
Mediterranean: a Mycenaean healing deity at
Hattuša-Bog˘azköy 101
Robert Arnott
8. Antistius Medicusand the ides of March 113
Ann Ellis Hanson
9. Notes on three Asclepiadean doctors 127
David Leith
10. Hippocratic whispers: telling the story of the life of
Hippocrates on the internet 143
Helen King
Bibliography 161
Bibliography of Vivian Nutton’s works 187
Index 201
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The editors would like to express their gratitude to the honorand, Vivian
Nutton, for his academic generosity and guidance over the years. They also
wish to thank Anton Powell and an anonymous reviewer for their invaluable
suggestions on every chapter and on the volume as a whole; the staff at the
Wellcome Library for their assistance; and all contributors to this present
volume for generously offering time and expertise in celebration of
Vivian’s career.
vii

LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
Robert Arnott was, before retirement, Professor of the History and
Archaeology of Medicine, Director of the Centre for the History of
Medicine and Public Orator of the University of Birmingham and is now
a Fellow of Green Templeton College in the University of Oxford, where
he has continued to undertake teaching and research. He specialises in
disease and medicine in the Aegean and Anatolian Bronze Ages,
2000–1100 BCand the Indus Civilisation of South Asia, 2600–1900 BCand
has published extensively in these fields.
Véronique Boudon-Millotis Research Director at the CNRS (the French
National Centre for Scientific Research). She was director of the research
group ‘Orient et Méditerranée’ (CNRS –Sorbonne University) from 2014
to 2018. She regularly leads two seminars on textual criticism and on the
history of Greek medical texts at the Sorbonne and at the École normale
supérieure. In addition to numerous articles and conference proceedings,
she has produced four critical editions with French translations of works
by Galen for the series Collection des Universités de France: Exhortation to the
Arts (2000); On My Own Books and The Order of My Own Books (2007);
Avoiding Distress(2010); and On Theriac, to Piso(2016). She has also published
a biography of Galen of Pergamum (2012) translated into Italian (2016).
Elizabeth Craik, formerly professor at Kyoto University, is now honorary
professor in the School of Classics, University of St Andrews, with main
research interests in Greek medicine. She has in recent years published
editions, with commentaries, of several Hippocratic texts (Places in Man,
On Sight, On Anatomy, On Glands) and a complete scholarly guide to the
Hippocratic Corpus (The ‘Hippocratic’ Corpus: Content and Context), as well as
numerous articles on Greek medicine and on Greek tragedy.
Rebecca Flemmingis Senior Lecturer in ancient history in the Classics
Faculty of the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of Jesus College. Her
research focuses on the society and culture of the Roman Empire, and she
has published widely on classical medicine, gender and sexuality, both
together and separately. Her book Medicine and the Making of Roman Women:
Gender, Nature and Authority from Celsus to Galen came out from Oxford
University Press in 2000, and the volume she co-edited with Nick
Hopwood and Lauren Kassell, Reproduction: Antiquity to the Present Day was
ix