STATUS OF PHYSICIAN IN ANCIENT ROMAN SOCIETY

Abstract

The way the medicine and physicians were treated in Ancient Rome was in a certain sense unique. As Rome was developing its domination in the most parts of Mediterranean region, both Greek culture and Greek medicine were permeating into Urbs Aeterna, with slaves, freedmen and free men who arrived to the capital as physicians from occupied countries. The strata of slave intelligentsia was quite feasible in Rome. A special position was held by freedmen, whose practicing allowed a good income for their ex-masters. The attitude to Greek physicians in the Roman society was ambiguous and contradictory. The status of physicians in the Roman Empire was very different, depending on their background (from educated slaves to children of local Hellenistic elite) and also on the fact that there were no certification for medical profession in ancient times. The social status of a physician was lower than that of any Roman magistrate, as the physician, according the
Roman point of view, was no more than a highly qualified artisan. On the other hand, knowledge of medicine was the part of good education of a boy that belonged to Roman elite. The professional level of those who delivered medical aid was different in the Greco-Roman world. The physicians were using sometimes administrative and social elevators in order to get to state service as city archiatroi and palatine archiatroi as well as military doctors and tried their hand in non-medical positions in establishment; however, Asclepiades of Bithynia and Galen achieved their glory and high social status due to their medical performance. Roman law in a certain degree regulated the physicians’ activities, including guaranteeing immunity of taxes and military service. There were professional groups of physicians, membership in which allowed them support of their colleagues. The status of physician in the Roman Empire was substantially different from that one in Ancient Greece.