Note 421 — WAS THE ROMAN ARMY PROVIDED WITH MEDICAL OFFICERS?

“Medicis ministrisque conaretur persuadere, senem ut e medio quam primum quoquo modo tollerent.”—Lib. iii. p. 412. The Emperor Marcus Aurelius died in Pannonia, when prosecuting a war against the German tribes. Dion Cassius alludes to the physicians who were in attendance upon Aurelius during this long campaign, when adverting to the report that the emperor’s death was caused by them, in order to promote his son and successor Commodus (“peremptus a Medicis qui Commodo gratificabantur.”—Excerpta, p. 252). But Capitolinus, the principal authority regarding the biography of Aurelius, does not even advert to the report. On the other hand, he describes Aurelius' fatal illness as one of seven days’ duration, and states that the emperor only dismissed Commodus from his presence on the last day, lest he should communicate the disease to him. (“Septimo die gravatus est; et solum filium admisit; quem statim dimisit, ne in eum morbus transiret.”—Scriptores Historiæ Romanæ, vol. ii. p. 298.)