Medicine and the Making of Roman Women

All the authorities are here: Celsus, Aretaeus of Cappadocia, Rufus of Ephesus, Soranus of Ephesus (whose "Methodism" stands in marked contrast to the rest), and of course Galen in his polymathic depth and breadth. One also gains a rather perceptive picture of Caelius Aurelianus and his presumed rendering into Latin of Soranus's lost writings, especially on acute and chronic diseases. Peeping through at appropriate moments are Dioscorides of Anazarbus, Criton (physician to Trajan), the constant insistence of varying approaches of Themison, Thessalus, and medical astrology. The early Byzantines are here too: Oribasius, Aetius of Amida, Alexander of Tralles, and Paul of Aegina, albeit more often than not used as quarries for quotations from "lost" classical texts. This volume is an enormous achievement, a work that [End Page 941] will repay repeated reading and consultation. Too few studies of ancient medicine attempting a broad sweep control the primary sources as does this book; moreover, Rebecca Flemming's net is both extensive and fine: unusually, Scribonius Largus receives his due, along with Heras, the odd metrics of Damocrates (embedded in Galen's drug books), Andromachus the Younger, and—yes—Pliny the Elder with his female sources on matters medical and pharmacological

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