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Five Inscriptions of Doctors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

V. Nutton
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Extract

The medical profession is probably the best represented of all occupational groups on inscriptions of the Roman empire and reveals great differences of wealth and status among its members. These five inscriptions, three from Asia Minor and two from Italy, are typical examples of doctors in their areas and provide useful information on the social composition of the profession of medicine in the Roman empire.

A. A marble plaque, broken to the right. 31·5 cm. X 33 X 1·6. Found in the court of the Serapeum at Ostia and kindly communicated to me by Professor G. Barbieri. Ostia inventory number n. 8544, Giornale di Scavo, IV, p. 170, n. 196.

Type
Research Article
Information
Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 37 , November 1969 , pp. 96 - 99
Copyright
Copyright © British School at Rome 1969

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References

1 ‘Dans l'Afrique du Nord, comme en Gaule et en Italie, il y a souvent un lien entre l'emploi du grec et la profession de médecin,’ Bulletin Éigraphique, 1953, p. 201 : Hellenica, , Revue de Philologie, 3ème série, 13, 1939, 163–73Google Scholar.

2 Calza, G., La Necropoli del Porto di Ostia (Rome, 1940), pp. 373–6Google Scholar : a full bibliography and a brief discussion of the problems raised by this tomb is in Meiggs, R., Roman Ostia (Oxford, 1960), pp. 563–4Google Scholar, to which add A. Degrassi, Memorie ed Atti dell' Accademia dei Lincei, 1963, 159 ff. and Bloch, H., Gnomon 37, 1965, p. 202Google Scholar.

3 IG, XIV, 942, 943; Petersen, L., Varia, V., RM, xv, 1900, 171 fGoogle Scholar. A good photograph of the relief is in Holländer, E., Plastik und Medizin (Stuttgart, 1912) pp. 450–1Google Scholar. Other doctors on Ostian inscriptions or reliefs are CIL, XIV, 468; 471; 4710 (ILS, 5395); Calza, op. cit., pp. 248–51; Grabar, A., The Beginnings of Christian Art (London, 1967)Google Scholar fig. 86. Cf. also CIL, XIII, 6621, a doctor from Ostia serving in the German army, and AE, 1939, 162+1941, 8, on a mosaic in the Baths of the Seven Sages.

4 These figures are mainly derived from an analysis of the inscriptions given by H. Gummerus, Der Ärztestand im römischen Reiche nach den Inschriften, I, Societas Scientiarum Fennica Comm. Humanarum Litterarum, III, 6, 1932.

5 A magister vici at Ostia, ILS, 5395 : an aedile at Sufetula in Africa, ILS, 7796 : note also the career of the son of a doctor of equestrian rank at Beneventum, ILS, 6496.

6 In addition to this they are : CIL, V, 2396 : 2530 : 2857 : 3940 : IX, 2680 : X, 6469 : XI, 5399 + 5400 : 5412: 6232 : XII, 1804: Not. Sc., 1959, 275. Cf. also CIL, IX, 340 and XIV, 3641.

7 The size of CIL, V, 2940, compares well with this; a slab 121 cm. * 61 * 52·5 with an incised tabula ansata 100 * 43. Two inscriptions carry a relief: CIL, X, 6469 from Setia and V. 2396 from Ferrara, of which a drawing will be found in Frizzi, A., Memorie per la storia di Ferrara (Ferrara, 1791)Google Scholar, pl. VI, n. 12. Note also the remarks upon the quality of the lettering of CIL, XII, 1804.

8 Epigraphische Beiträge zur Geschichte des Aerztestandes, Janus, XIV, 1909, 4–20, 111–23Google Scholar.

9 The height is recorded as 0·13 with no indication of the unit of measurement. Dr. Laminger informs me that other measurements of the anonymous writer appear to be in centimetres, but that a height of 1·3 cm., which is what analogy would suggest, seems too small. She prefers to consider that the height of the letters is recorded in inches, 1·3 in. = 3·3 cm.

10 Denkschriften der königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, Phil-Hist. Klasse, xliv, 6 (1896), p. 108Google Scholar.

11 Other inscriptions to doctors are MAMA, III, 22; 269; 292; 409; 528b; 605; and BCH, iv, 1880, p. 199Google Scholar, n. 10.