Note 383 — WAS THE ROMAN ARMY PROVIDED WITH MEDICAL OFFICERS?

At the famous battle at the Lake Regillus, fought 497 years before the commencement of the Christian era, Livy tells us that after Titus Herminius slew Mamilius, he was himself struck with a javelin while stripping the body of his enemy; and on being brought back to the camp victorious, he died on the first dressing of his wound (inter primam curationem expiraverit).—Livii Historiarum Libri, lib. ii. cap. xx. It is not, however, stated whether this cure of the wound was attempted by the hand of a military comrade, or by that of a surgeon. The same historian mentions that a few years later (B.C. 483), after the battle in which the Romans defeated the Hetrurians, the surviving consul, M. Fabius, distributed his wounded soldiers, for the purpose of cure, among the senators residing in Rome (saucios milites curandos dividit patribus).—See Livy, lib. ii. cap. xlvii. And Tacitus, when describing the catastrophe resulting from the fall of the amphitheatre at Fidena, in the reign of Tiberius, states that those injured and wounded by the accident were received into the houses of the citizens, and there carefully attended to, as (he adds) was the custom in former times after great battles (veterum institutis similis, qui magna post proelia saucios largitione et cura sustentabant).—Annal., lib. iv. c. 63.