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Pliny's Poisoned Provinces

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Pliny's Poisoned Provinces A DANGEROUS ART: GREEK PHYSICIANS AND MEDICAL RISK IN IMPERIAL ROME DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Molly Ayn Jones Lewis, B.A., M.A. ********* The Ohio State University May, 2009 Dissertation Committee: Duane W. Roller, Advisor Approved by Julia Nelson Hawkins __________________________________ Frank Coulson Advisor Greek and Latin Graduate Program Fritz Graf Copyright by Molly Ayn Jones Lewis 2009 ABSTRACT Recent scholarship of identity issues in Imperial Rome has focused on the complicated intersections of “Greek” and “Roman” identity, a perfect microcosm in which to examine the issue in the high-stakes world of medical practice where physicians from competing Greek-speaking traditions interacted with wealthy Roman patients. I argue that not only did Roman patients and politicians have a variety of methods at their disposal for neutralizing the perceived threat of foreign physicians, but that the foreign physicians also were given ways to mitigate the substantial dangers involved in treating the Roman elite. I approach the issue from three standpoints: the political rhetoric surrounding foreign medicines, the legislation in place to protect doctors and patients, and the ethical issues debated by physicians and laypeople alike. I show that Roman lawmakers, policy makers, and physicians had a variety of ways by which the physical, political, and financial dangers of foreign doctors and Roman patients posed to one another could be mitigated. The dissertation argues that despite barriers of xenophobia and ethnic identity, physicians practicing in Greek traditions were fairly well integrated into the cultural milieu of imperial Rome, and were accepted (if not always trusted) members of society. Their inclusion into the fabric of Romanitas prefigures the later ii integration of Roman and Greek identity that was to culminate in the Greek-speaking Romans of the Byzantine Empire. iii Dedication To my parents, Drs. Jo and Mark Jones whose lifelong dedication to their patients and their art inspired and informed my own calling. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS So many people gave generously of their time, patience and knowledge to make this project possible that, in a sense, this is partly their dissertation as well. First and foremost, my advisor Duane W. Roller, whose patience, availability, and knowledge were instrumental in getting this done on time, coherently, and properly spelled. Few students have advisors who manage to comment on new drafts with a day's turnaround, and fewer still are blessed with a mentor as gracious, demanding, and brilliant. Julia Nelson- Hawkins's expertise in ancient medicine is a rare boon to a student completing a dissertation in such a niche topic, and without her exacting standards and insistence on flow and secondary sources, this would be a much weaker text. Frank Coulson is also owed a great share of my thanks, since his suggestion that I study medieval herbals lead me to the topic in the first place. To all three of my committee members, I can offer only words of gratitude for the investment of time and energy you have made in my work; I feel honored and blessed to have had the opportunity to work with a committee of such fine people. A separate thanks is owed to Fritz Graf, who generously offered to step in at the last moment when the Graduate school told me I needed a fourth reader. There are not words to express my appreciation for his help with this. v A debt of gratitude is also owed to John Scarborough, whose generosity with citations and articles were indispensable to the project. I am sure few students have gotten such a warm and supportive welcome to their subfield as Prof. Scarborough has given me. There are few senior scholars who would do so much for a graduate student in their own department, let alone outside of their institution: John is, as Marcus Aurelius said of Galenos, both a doctor and a gentleman. Finally, thanks of a different sort are owed to my husband, Robert Lewis, who patiently cooked and cleaned while I sat hunched over a pile of books and a laptop, and who worked hard to support his classicist wife, never minding the difficulties and uncertainties that the academic job market have imposed on our lives. Without his patience and care, I would have starved to death somewhere in the middle of writing the second chapter, and without his ability to find library books hiding in plain sight, I would have lost what little sanity I had and gone bankrupt from library fines. Also my parents, who gave me their enthusiastic support when I informed them I was going to make a living off of dead languages, and who read through pages and pages of academic prose to be sure my medical terminology was correct. And to my grandparents, Richard and Gene Jones and Eleanor and Neal Allen, whose generosity enabled me to attend whatever college I chose. vi Finally, to Susan and Hartley Shearer, who patiently drilled the principles of Latin and Greek grammar into my scattered brain and began my love affair with the Classical world. Not nearly enough praise is afforded the talented classicists who work in the trenches of secondary education; were it not for the patience, dedication, and inspiration of my beloved magistri, I would have ended up in a far less interesting line of work. Everything I am as a scholar and teacher of Latin and Greek began with them. Magistra, I apologize in advance for the inevitable comma errors. Please don't cut off my Asterix privileges. To all of you, my deepest gratitude and affection. vii VITA January 21, 1981................................................... Born – Morgantown, West Virginia 2003....................................................................... B.A. with Honors, Swarthmore College 2006....................................................................... M.A., The Ohio State University 2003 – present ...................................................... Graduate Teaching Associate The Ohio State University FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Greek and Latin viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract....................................................................................................... ii Dedication................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgments....................................................................................... v Vita.............................................................................................................. viii Chapters: Introduction................................................................................................ 1 1. Plinius's Poisoned Provinces.................................................................. 15 2. The Imperial Roman Doctor under the Law.......................................... 46 3. Self-Presentation, Patient Choice, and the Making of the Greek Physician in the Roman marketplace............................ 81 4. Perfecting Practice: Dissection, Vivisection, and Experimentation................................... 120 5. Making Romans: The Physician's Role in Roman Reproduction.................................. 159 6. Unmaking Romans: The Role of the Physician in Political Suicide and Euthanasia......... 207 Conclusion.................................................................................................. 235 Bibliography................................................................................................ 238 ix INTRODUCTION There has been in recent years a flourishing of interest in the lived experience of Greeks in the Roman empire, particularly in the context of the Second Sophistic. Scholars such as Simon Swain, Tim Whitmarsh, and Maud Gleason have done a great deal to continue what Glen Bowersock began in his 1969 Greek Sophists in the Roman Empire: the rehabilitation of a neglected and rich period of Greek literature and cultural history. Although much of the work of these scholars focuses on the rhetorical literature of the second and third centuries A.D., it addresses a central question with implications beyond words and speeches. What did it mean to be “Greek” in the Roman Empire? How did Romans accept the presence of a foreign intellectual tradition in their midst? And finally, what were the processes that led to the eventual blending of Greek, Roman, and Judeo-Christian in the Byzantine empire? It is questions such as these that this work relocates to the patient-doctor relationship among the wealthy and powerful houses of the Roman empire. Unlike sophists and philosophers, Greek physicians performed risky services liable to reinforce Roman xenophobia about “Graeculi” in their midst and were in a position to do a great deal of political harm by applying their knowledge to the nefarious art of assassination. And yet, Romans seem to have produced few physicians of note from their own ranks, relying instead upon these foreign physicians whom they both feared and needed. In 1 order to accommodate Greeks at their bedside tampering with their bodies – and one must remember that the body of the free Roman was explicitly protected from harm and violation by law – Romans had various political, legal, and cultural strategies for mitigating the amount of harm physicians could do to them. Greek physicians, for their part, were by no means ignorant of the necessity of reassuring patients of their trustworthiness and compliance with Roman needs and demands. They
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