952

which some inquiry would have been possible as to the oppor-tunity which the unfortunate lady had for obtaining medicalaid and how far she herself acquiesced in the absence of it.Whether at this late period the matter should be reopenedis another matter ; presumably there is no evidence to justifyany action being taken. Had the deceased been a childthe matter would, of course, have assumed a differentcomplexion.

THE MEDICAL INSCRIPTIONS OF THECOLUMBARIUM LIVIAE.

THE immense collection of inscriptions dating from thetime of the Roman empire that has been gathered togetherin the great " Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum" necessarilycontains many texts relating to medical men in various partsof Italy and even in the distant provinces of the Romanempire. The volumes, the contents of which are confined tothe publication of inscriptions discovered in Rome or its

neighbourhood, present more than the average proportion ofthese medical memorials because they include the series ofmany physicians and surgeons whose remains were placed inthe "columbarium" " of Livia, wife of Augustus, which wasexcavated, near the Appian Way, in A.D. 1726. The textsfrom this special site, as will appear, throw a vivid

light upon the organisation of the various classes of

professors of the healing art as permitted to exercisetheir vocation in the time of Augustus under a systemreally determined by Cassar’s decree regulating thecultivation of all arts and sciences. For a complete !Iaccount of the information afforded as to medical matters byLatin inscriptions it will be necessary to quote and to com- z,ment upon many texts relating not to practitioners but tothe deity JEsculapius, and his hierarchy, because it was Iwithin his temple that the medical profession first dispensed Ithe benefits of its knowledge to their fellow men. But the

present notes will be confined to a summary of variousinscriptions relating to medical men in the time of theCsesars.Two texts from the Columbarium Liviae may be quoted as

indicating different grades of medical officers at the court.The first reads : M . LIVIVS . LIVIAE . L . ORESTES .SVPRA . MED. This shows that Orestes, perhaps ofEgyptian origin, had attained to the position of supramedicus, "superpositus medicorum," an office evidently ofsuperintendent of all those under his command engaged inthe treatment of disease. It may be also that he hadthe rights of inspectorship and supervision over personsindirectly connected with medicine, such as the adiutoresvaletudinarii and unguentarii and others. The second textpreserves the title of a " decurio medicorum " ; it reads :M . LIVIVS . BOETHVS DEC. MEDICO.The following inscription derived from the same place

gives the name of a surgeon ; it is No. 3986 in the " Corpus,"AVG . HILARVS . MEDIC . CHIRVRG. Another whichsucceeds it would seem to indicate the commencement of

specialism, though merely reading MEDIC . OCVLARIVS,the name having unfortunately been broken away. Aural

specialists were known to have flourished and classic authorsspeak of them. A text in the Naples Museum confirms this.it being that of " T. Aelius . Aminias Medicus Auricularius."Another of these known from literature was named Celadianuswho practised under Augustus. His memorial epitaph wasrecovered near the Via Latina and shows that he died whilst

quite young. It reads, " Thyrius Ti ...... Coesaris, Aug ......Ser ...... Celadianus Medicus Ocularius. Pius parentiumsuorum. Vixit Annos XXX." The next inscription is thatof a freedman, not of Livia but of Drusus, and is given herebecause it is perfectly legible throughout. It may be foundin the sixth volume, Part II. of the " Corpus " under thehead of "Monumentum libertorum Drusi." "

CHRETE. CONSERVEEET. CONIVGI. CELADVS. ANTON

DRVSI . MED . CHIRVRGB(ene) MERENTI . FECIT

VIXIT . ANNOS XVII.

To be specially appointed physician to the Court was justas much an honour then as now and therefore a high officeworthy of record in the sepulchre. Therefore a text dis-covered in the Via Latina reads: " D. M. RVPILIO .

CALPVRNIANO . MEDICO . DOMVS. AVGVSTAE," &c.Sometimes these lapidary memorials relate to personagesalready familiar to us from classic authors or to members oftheir family. For instance, Pliny, writing of the famousmedical men of his time, mentions five names, saying:"Multos praeterea medicos celeberrimosque ex iis Cassios,Calpitanos, Aruntios, Albutios, Rubrios." The succeedinginscription of the time of Domitian refers to a member ofthe Aruntii family. It was found in the Via Nomentana andis No. 8895 of the " Corpus " :-

L. ARRVNTIO. SEMPRONANOASCLEPIADI I

INP . DOMITIANI . MEDICO

T(estimentum) F(ieri) I(ussit).lFor signal service to a member of the Imperial family the

attendant might be awarded a decoration. Thus the physicianof Faustina obtained insignia ATMETO . MEDICO . ET .PARTENOPAEVS . FAVSTINAE . AVG . SERVI . OB .ORNAMENTIS. AMICO. BENE. MERENTI. FEOERVNT.Other names given in inscriptions of the early Csesars areClaudius Athenodorus, doubtless a Greek, Cyrus, perhaps aPersian, Eros, and Titus Flavius who would, however, datefrom the period of the Flavian Emperors. A personage namedSterope is another instance of a decurion of medicine.The next inscription is given because it informs us of the

existence of a medical library which there is reason tobelieve was founded by Augustus, or it may be that he wasspecially custodian of the medical works in the great library.AVG. L. HYMENAEVS. MEDICVS. A. BYBLIOTHECIS.

ET . DOMITIA . PANNICHIS. SIBI. ET . SVISPOSTERISQVE . EORVM.

There was a College of the Archiatri whom we shallpresently find mentioned in these lapidary texts and it isapparent that there were medical colleges in all the greatercities as there was one upon the Esquiline Hill at Rome.A text at Beneventum refers to property of the medicalcollege there " in perpetuum ad collegium medicorumpertinet." A college would require a secretary, and fromNaples we have the epitaph of such a one. "D. T.Aurelius . M. Telesphorus, Scriba Medicorum." The scribe,or clerk, probably was a copyist of medical works belongingto the college. A cippus of a medical man, Curtianus, atPraeneste, has beside its inscription graven upon it a

representation of certain surgical instruments and of books.The Archiatri were a superior order of physicians organisedby Nero and were of two orders, the Archiatri palatini" orcourt physicians and the "Archiatri populares." " AntoninusPius ordained that a committee of these should be formedin all the great cities, by election by the citizens, but it isthought that before they were eligible for such an electionthey had to pass an examination conducted by the chiefcollege of the Archiatri. We have at least four inscrip-tions of Archiatri from Rome, one named Timotheus, anotherAratus, whilst in the other two the names are obliterated.We have seen that persons of provincial parentage,

certainly Greeks, practised in Rome and there is a textof one Rapetiga Medicus civis Hispanus " who died underAugustus. Another inscription reads "Egypto MedicoTertia filio carissimo posuit." An oculist P. L. Philogeneswas also a Greek. An inscription of a medical man,Demetrius Trallianus, from the province of Naples, iswritten in Greek, and may be found in the " InscriptionesRegni Neapolitani" of Mommsen. There were ladies who

adopted the healing art as their profession. From theQuirinal comes a text of " Minucia Medica." In the VaticanMuseum is one of " Julia Medica, " another honours "TerentiaNiceni Terentiae Primae Medica." Veterinary surgeons arealso represented. No. 9610 in the Corpus is of one APOLLO-DORVS ...... MEDICVS . EQVARIVS ...... ; another readsSECVNDINVS . MVLOMEDICVS., and there are more ofthese. Inscriptions of surgeons attached to the legionsnaturally are discovered nearer the frontiers. One found inRome is of a naval surgeon, T. Flavius Euprepetius, whowas attached to what might be termed the "home fleet,"stationed at Misenum, the marine station of whichwas just north of Naples. As physicians of the fair sexhave been referred to the record of a midwife deservesmention. Her name is an appropriate one: HYGIA .MARCELLAE . L . OBSTETRIX.

1 No. 8897 of the " Corpus " refers to one of the Cassii; and StertinusXenophon, the celebrated physician, is mentioned in 8905, a monumentin the Vatican Museum.