Note 70: — XIX.—MEDICINE AND SURGERY. (Table-Case H.)

Roman Medicine.—Medical science for a long time made but little progress in Rome. The Greek physician Archagathos, who began to practise there in 219 B.C., became extremely unpopular owing to his bold methods of surgery.70 The Roman doctors were chiefly of Greek nationality, and not infrequently were slaves or freedmen. Julius Caesar encouraged foreign physicians to settle in Rome by granting them citizenship, and under the early Empire Rome was overcrowded with medical men, if we may believe Pliny and Martial.71