Rebecca Flemming is a Classicist. She holds the inaugural A.G. Leventis Chair as Professor of Ancient Greek Scientific and Technological Thought at the University of Exeter.
Flemming completed her PhD at University College London in 1997. Her doctoral thesis was Woman as an Object of Medical Knowledge in the Roman Empire, from Celsus to Galen. [1]
Flemming specialises in medicine, reproduction, pandemics, and gender in classical antiquity. Flemming took up her position at Exeter University in 2022 when the chair was established with a £1.2m donation from the A. G. Leventis Foundation. [2] [3] In 2021, Flemming contributed to an episode of In Our Time on the Justinianic Plague. [4]
Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus, often anglicized as Galen or Galen of Pergamon, was a Roman and Greek physician, surgeon and philosopher. Considered to be one of the most accomplished of all medical researchers of antiquity, Galen influenced the development of various scientific disciplines, including anatomy, physiology, pathology, pharmacology, and neurology, as well as philosophy and logic.
Herophilos, sometimes Latinised Herophilus, was a Greek physician regarded as one of the earliest anatomists. Born in Chalcedon, he spent the majority of his life in Alexandria. He was the first scientist to systematically perform scientific dissections of human cadavers. He recorded his findings in over nine works, which are now all lost. The early Christian author Tertullian states that Herophilos vivisected at least 600 live prisoners; however, this account has been disputed by many historians. He is often seen as the father of anatomy.
The Antonine Plague of AD 165 to 180, also known as the Plague of Galen, was a prolonged and destructive epidemic, which impacted the Roman Empire. It was possibly contracted and spread by soldiers who were returning from campaign in the Near East. Scholars generally believe the plague was smallpox, although measles has also been suggested, and recent genetic evidence strongly suggests that smallpox only arose much later. In AD 169 the plague may have claimed the life of the Roman emperor Lucius Verus, who was co-regnant with Marcus Aurelius. These two emperors had risen to the throne by virtue of being adopted by the previous emperor, Antoninus Pius, and as a result, their family name, Antoninus, has become associated with the pandemic.
Helen King is a British classical scholar and advocate for the medical humanities. She is Professor Emerita of Classical Studies at the Open University. She was previously Professor of the History of Classical Medicine and Head of the Department of Classics at the University of Reading.
Ancient Greek medicine was a compilation of theories and practices that were constantly expanding through new ideologies and trials. The Greek term for medicine was iatrikē. Many components were considered in ancient Greek medicine, intertwining the spiritual with the physical. Specifically, the ancient Greeks believed health was affected by the humors, geographic location, social class, diet, trauma, beliefs, and mindset. Early on the ancient Greeks believed that illnesses were "divine punishments" and that healing was a "gift from the Gods". As trials continued wherein theories were tested against symptoms and results, the pure spiritual beliefs regarding "punishments" and "gifts" were replaced with a foundation based in the physical, i.e., cause and effect.
The Library of Celsus is an ancient Roman building in Ephesus, Anatolia, today located nearby the modern town of Selçuk, in the İzmir Province of western Turkey. The building was commissioned in the years 110s CE by a consul of the Roman Empire, Tiberius Julius Aquila Polemaeanus, as a funerary monument for his father Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus, former proconsul of Asia, and completed during the reign of the Roman Emperor Hadrian, sometime after Aquila's death.
Medicine in ancient Rome was highly influenced by ancient Greek medicine, but also developed new practices through knowledge of the Hippocratic Corpus combined with use of the treatment of diet, regimen, along with surgical procedures. This was most notably seen through the works of two of the prominent Greek physicians, Dioscorides and Galen, who practiced medicine and recorded their discoveries. This is contrary to two other physicians like Soranus of Ephesus and Asclepiades of Bithynia, who practiced medicine both in outside territories and in ancient Roman territory, subsequently. Dioscorides was a Roman army physician, Soranus was a representative for the Methodic school of medicine, Galen performed public demonstrations, and Asclepiades was a leading Roman physician. These four physicians all had knowledge of medicine, ailments, and treatments that were healing, long lasting and influential to human history.
Vivian Nutton FBA is a British historian of medicine.
Aspasia was an ancient Greek medical writer known only from book 16 of Aetius of Amida's Tetrabiblion. She is cited eleven times by Aetius. John Scarborough suggests that Aspasia was a contemporary of Aetius and an expert in gynaeology and obstetrics.
Classical antiquity is the period of cultural history spanning from the 8th century BC to the beginning of the Middle Ages. The major civilizations are those of the Mediterranean region, ancient Greece, ancient Rome, and southwest Asia. Nutrition consisted of simple fresh or preserved whole foods that were either locally grown or transported from neighboring areas during times of crisis. Physicians and philosophers studied the effect of food on the human body and they generally agreed that food was important in preventing illness and restoring health.
Rebecca Langlands is Professor of Classics at the University of Exeter. She is known in particular for her work on the history of sexuality and ethics in the Roman world.
Fiona McHardy is a Professor of Classics and also the Head of History and Classics in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Roehampton. In 2003 she started work at Roehampton where she was responsible for building up the BA Classical Civilisation. Her research interests include ancient and modern Greek literature, folk poetry, anthropology and culture. She teaches modules on ancient Greek language, literature and culture.
Rebecca Futo Kennedy is Associate Professor of Classics, Women's and Gender Studies, and Environmental Studies at Denison University, and the Director of the Denison Museum. Her research focuses on the political, social, and cultural history of Classical Athens, Athenian tragedy, ancient immigration, ancient theories of race and ethnicity, and the reception of those theories in modern race science.
Patricia "Patty" Anne Baker is an American archaeologist and academic. She is Head of the Department of Classical & Archaeological Studies at the University of Kent and Senior Lecturer in Classical & Archaeological Studies.
Elena Isayev is Professor of Ancient History and Place in the Classics and Ancient History Department at the University of Exeter. She is an expert on migration, hospitality and displacement, particularly in ancient Mediterranean contexts. She works with Campus in Camps in Palestine and she is a Trustee of the charity Refugee Support Devon.
Barbara Zipser is a Historian of Greek medicine from antiquity to the Middle Ages. She is currently Senior Lecturer at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her research has been primarily funded by the Wellcome Trust.
Ancient Roman surgical practices developed from Greek techniques. Roman surgeons and doctors usually learned through apprenticeships or studying. Ancient Roman doctors such as Galen and Celsus described Roman surgical techniques in their medical literature, such as De Medicina. These methods encompassed modern oral surgery, cosmetic surgery, sutures, ligatures, amputations, tonsillectomies, mastectomies, cataract surgeries, lithotomies, hernia repair, gynecology, neurosurgery, and others. Surgery was a rare practice, as it was dangerous and often had fatal results. To perform these procedures, they used tools such as specula, catheters, enemas, bone levers, osteotomes, phlebotomes, probes, curettes, bone drills, bone forceps, cupping vessels, knives, scalpels, scissors, and spathas.
Cleopatra the Physician was a Greek medical writer and author of a manual entitled Cosmetics. Six fragments of her Cosmetics survive in quotation from later medical writers.
Fabulla or Fabylla was a medical writer of the Roman Empire, whose work survives only as two quotations in Galen.
Laurence Totelin (FRHistS) is a historian of Greek and Roman Science, Technology, and Medicine. She is Professor of Ancient History at Cardiff University.
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