Galen and the Rhetoric of Healing

Galen and the Rhetoric of Healing PDF Author: Susan P. Mattern
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 0801888352
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
Examining his professional interactions in the context of the world in which he lived and practiced, Galen and the Rhetoric of Healing provides a fresh perspective on a foundational figure in medicine and valuable insight into how doctors thought about their patients and their practice in the ancient world.

Galen and the Rhetoric of Healing

Galen and the Rhetoric of Healing PDF Author: Susan P. Mattern
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 0801896347
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
Galen is the most important physician of the Roman imperial era. Many of his theories and practices were the basis for medical knowledge for centuries after his death and some practices—like checking a patient’s pulse—are still used today. He also left a vast corpus of writings which makes up a full one-eighth of all surviving ancient Greek literature. Through her readings of hundreds of Galen’s case histories, Susan P. Mattern presents the first systematic investigation of Galen’s clinical practice. Galen’s patient narratives illuminate fascinating interplay among the craft of healing, social class, professional competition, ethnicity, and gender. Mattern describes the public, competitive, and masculine nature of medicine among the urban elite and analyzes the relationship between clinical practice and power in the Roman household. She also finds that although Galen is usually perceived as self-absorbed and self-promoting, his writings reveal him as sensitive to the patient’s history, symptoms, perceptions, and even words. Examining his professional interactions in the context of the world in which he lived and practiced, Galen and the Rhetoric of Healing provides a fresh perspective on a foundational figure in medicine and valuable insight into how doctors thought about their patients and their practice in the ancient world.

Galen and the Rhetoric of Healing

Galen and the Rhetoric of Healing PDF Author: Susan P. Mattern
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 0801888352
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 292

Get Book Here

Book Description
Examining his professional interactions in the context of the world in which he lived and practiced, Galen and the Rhetoric of Healing provides a fresh perspective on a foundational figure in medicine and valuable insight into how doctors thought about their patients and their practice in the ancient world.

The Prince of Medicine

The Prince of Medicine PDF Author: Susan P. Mattern
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199986150
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 367

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Book Description
Galen of Pergamum (A.D. 129 - ca. 216) began his remarkable career tending to wounded gladiators in provincial Asia Minor. Later in life he achieved great distinction as one of a small circle of court physicians to the family of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, at the very heart of Roman society. Susan Mattern's The Prince of Medicine offers the first authoritative biography in English of this brilliant, audacious, and profoundly influential figure. Like many Greek intellectuals living in the high Roman Empire, Galen was a prodigious polymath, writing on subjects as varied as ethics and eczema, grammar and gout. Indeed, he was (as he claimed) as highly regarded in his lifetime for his philosophical works as for his medical treatises. However, it is for medicine that he is most remembered today, and from the later Roman Empire through the Renaissance, medical education was based largely on his works. Even up to the twentieth century, he remained the single most influential figure in Western medicine. Yet he was a complicated individual, full of breathtaking arrogance, shameless self-promotion, and lacerating wit. He was fiercely competitive, once disemboweling a live monkey and challenging the physicians in attendance to correctly replace its organs. Relentless in his pursuit of anything that would cure the patient, he insisted on rigorous observation and, sometimes, daring experimentation. Even confronting one of history's most horrific events--a devastating outbreak of smallpox--he persevered, bearing patient witness to its predations, year after year. The Prince of Medicine gives us Galen as he lived his life, in the city of Rome at its apex of power and decadence, among his friends, his rivals, and his patients. It offers a deeply human and long-overdue portrait of one of ancient history's most significant and engaging figures.

Greek Medicine from Hippocrates to Galen

Greek Medicine from Hippocrates to Galen PDF Author: Jacques Jouanna
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004208593
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 424

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Book Description
This volume makes available in English translation a selection of Jacques Jouanna's papers on Greek and Roman medicine, ranging from the early beginnings of Greek medicine to late antiquity.

Galen on Food and Diet

Galen on Food and Diet PDF Author: Mark Grant
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134572700
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
Galen, the personal physician of the emperor Marcus Aurelius, wrote what was long regarded as the definitive guide to a healthy diet, and profoundly influenced medical thought for centuries. Based on his theory of the four humours, these works describe the effects on health of a vast range of foods including lettuce, lard, peaches and hyacinths. This book makes all his texts on food available in English for the first time, and provides many captivating insights into the ancient understanding of food and health.

The Empire of the Self

The Empire of the Self PDF Author: Christopher Star
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421407264
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
Christopher Star uncovers significant points of contact between Seneca and Petronius, two important Roman writers long thought to be antagonists. In The Empire of the Self, Christopher Star studies the question of how political reality affects the concepts of body, soul, and self. Star argues that during the early Roman Empire the establishment of autocracy and the development of a universal ideal of individual autonomy were mutually enhancing phenomena. The Stoic ideal of individual empire or complete self-command is a major theme of Seneca’s philosophical works. The problematic consequences of this ideal are explored in Seneca’s dramatic and satirical works, as well as in the novel of his contemporary Petronius. Star examines the rhetorical links between these diverse texts. He also demonstrates a significant point of contact between two writers generally thought to be antagonists—the idea that imperial speech structures reveal the self.

A Companion to Religion in Late Antiquity

A Companion to Religion in Late Antiquity PDF Author: Josef Lössl
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118968107
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 711

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Book Description
A comprehensive review of the development, geographic spread, and cultural influence of religion in Late Antiquity A Companion to Religion in Late Antiquity offers an authoritative and comprehensive survey of religion in Late Antiquity. This historical era spanned from the second century to the eighth century of the Common Era. With contributions from leading scholars in the field, the Companion explores the evolution and development of religion and the role various religions played in the cultural, political, and social transformations of the late antique period. The authors examine the theories and methods used in the study of religion during this period, consider the most notable historical developments, and reveal how religions spread geographically. The authors also review the major religious traditions that emerged in Late Antiquity and include reflections on the interaction of these religions within their particular societies and cultures. This important Companion: Brings together in one volume the work of a notable team of international scholars Explores the principal geographical divisions of the late antique world Offers a deep examination of the predominant religions of Late Antiquity Examines established views in the scholarly assessment of the religions of Late Antiquity Includes information on the current trends in late-antique scholarship on religion Written for scholars and students of religion, A Companion to Religion in Late Antiquity offers a comprehensive survey of religion and the influence religion played in the culture, politics, and social change during the late antique period.

Rome and the Enemy

Rome and the Enemy PDF Author: Susan P. Mattern
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520236831
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
This text draws on the literature, composed by the elite who conducted Roman foreign affairs. It shows that concepts of honour, competition for status and revenge drove Roman foreign policy.

Homo Patiens - Approaches to the Patient in the Ancient World

Homo Patiens - Approaches to the Patient in the Ancient World PDF Author: Georgia Petridou
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004305564
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 564

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Book Description
Homo Patiens - Approaches to the Patient in the Ancient World is a book about the patients of the Graeco-Roman world, their role in the ancient medical encounters and their relationship to the health providers and medical practitioners of their time. This volume makes a strong claim for the relevance of a patient-centred approach to the history of ancient medicine. Attention to the experience of patients deepens our understanding of ancient societies and their medical markets, and enriches our knowledge of the history of ancient cultures. It is a first step towards shaping a history of the ancient patient’s view, which will be of use not only to ancient historians, students of medical humanities, and historians of medicine, but also to any reader interested in medical ethics.

Patients and Healers in the High Roman Empire

Patients and Healers in the High Roman Empire PDF Author: Ido Israelowich
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421416298
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 205

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Book Description
A comprehensive study of both patients and healers in the High Roman Empire. Patients and Healers in the High Roman Empire offers a fascinating holistic look at the practice of ancient Roman medicine. Ido Irsaelowich presents three richly detailed case studies—one focusing on the home and reproduction; another on the army; the last on medical tourism—from the point of view of those on both sides of the patient-healer divide. He explains in depth how people in the classical world became aware of their ailments, what they believed caused particular illnesses, and why they turned to certain healers—root cutters, gymnastic trainers, dream interpreters, pharmacologists, and priests—or sought medical care in specific places such as temples, bath houses, and city centers. The book brings to life the complex behavior and social status of all the actors involved in the medical marketplace. It also sheds new light on classical theories about sickness, the measures Romans undertook to tackle disease and improve public health, and personal expectations for and evaluations of various treatments. Ultimately, Israelowich concludes that this clamoring multitude of coexisting forms of health care actually shared a common language. Drawing on a diverse range of sources—including patient testimonies; the writings of physicians, historians, and poets; and official publications of the Roman state—Patients and Healers in the High Roman Empire is a groundbreaking history of the culture of classical medicine.