MEDICINE IN THE ROMAN ARMY

MEDICINE IN THE ROMAN ARMY

We have very few notices about the medical art in the roman army in the republican age. Titus Livius et al. tell us that the soldiers wounded in action were carried in the villages, in the surroundings of the battlefield, to be assisted.
The emperor Augustus, in his reform of the army, introduced the military doctors, specifically trained, not as the civilian ones. They were enrolled as the other soldiers, remaining on duty about 16 years long.
In the army, Romans had one doctor for each cohors and two for the first-line one. They were under the command of the praefectus castrensis and of a chief-doctor, which was often the personal doctor of the emperor.
Cavalry had its own doctors (medici alarum) and so had the navy (medici triremis). In the army the ranks in descending order were medicus legionaris, medicus coorti and medicus ordinarii. This one had a rank corresponding to the centurio, but without an effective power on the soldiers, being that rank not really recognized, as the doctor doesn’t take active part in the battle.
The medical care of the wounded men was made directly on the field. In the worse cases the soldier was carried in the valetudinarium in castris, a sort of field-hospital capable of 200 beds: we have discovered evidences in some city that have its origin in a roman military camp.
A good video with a reconstruction of this hospital is at the following address http://www.la7.it/approfondimento/dettaglio.asp?prop=atlantide&video=18409
The commander of the valetudinarium was the medicus castrensis, exempted from any other duty and assisted by capsarii (wardrobe attendant), frictores (masseurs), unguentarii (for applying oils), curators operis (physicians), optiones valetudinarii (with feeding or administrative duties).
Roman doctors were particularly skilled in traumatology and hygienic matters. Their presence in the castra (chester), widespread all over Europe, highly contributed to the developing of the modern medicine.

POSTED BY PETER WOODY