each other about theories, methods, and treatments. Most of
them would have agreed that dissection was useful, but few
physicians seemed to have done any themselves in the Roman
period, even on animals. A notable example of a rationalist
who performed dissections is Galen, who carried out dissec-
tions and vivisections (operations performed on the living)
on many animals, including dogs, goats, Barbary apes, and
once an elephant. Galen’s dissections were oft en carried out
in public settings, where anyone could watch as a kind of
popular theater that Galen used to lend dramatic visual sup-
port for his claims about physiology.MEDICAL TRAINING AND TREATMENTS
Th e usual way to learn medicine was by apprenticeship to a
practicing physician. Sons of physicians probably oft en be-
came doctors themselves as part of a family business. Many
elite doctors studied in several places famous as centers of in-
tellectual medicine, such as Pergamum and Alexandria. Th ey
may also have been educated in philosophy more generally, as
Galen was. It was possible to teach oneself by reading works
on medicine, as Asclepiades is said to have done. Th ere were
no e x a m i nat ion s or le ga l qu a l i fi cations to take, so anyone who
wanted to set up as a doctor could do so. However, whether
people came to a particular doctor depended on his reputa-
tion and what they knew about him, and in the early stages
of a practice it would have helped to have learned from a lo-
cally known doctor or a famous physician elsewhere. Doctors
were usually men, though it is possible that female midwives,
some of whom were literate and trained in medical methods,
treated female patients for a broader range of problems than
those associated with childbirth.
In ancient Rome a very common medical treatment was
the prescription of a combination of diet and lifestyle recom-
mendations, such as exercise and baths, known as a regimen.
For illness, drugs could be prescribed. In the Roman period
these became increasingly complicated. Drugs that contained
only one or two ingredients were called simples, but many
drugs were made of numerous ingredients, sometimes more
than 100, and such a medicine was called a polypharmacy.
Women might use contraceptives, abortifacients (a drug that
causes abortion), and drugs to bring on menstruation. Th ere
were many kinds of surgical operations, both for trauma and
internal conditions, including an operation to remove cataracts
from the eye. Since there were no anesthetics, several assistants
were needed to hold conscious patients still for operations.
Th e combination of mathematics and astrology produced
iatromathematics (medical astrology). Th e movements of the
stars were thought to aff ect the course of a disease and the
times and ways in which a physician could most eff ectively
intervene. Medical astrology was popular and accepted by
many physicians, but not all.MATHEMATICS
Th e administration of the Roman Empire required a great
dea l of orga nization, much of which depended upon some de-gree of mathematical knowledge. Arithmetical expertise was
needed by the government and army offi cials and secretaries
who dealt with taxes on land, trade, and goods; public expen-
diture and accounting; army provisions and the payment of
soldiers; the regular census of the population; and many other
aspects of a large empire. Many traders and other business-
men also needed to be able to manage numbers quickly and
reliably or to employ people who could. Bronze abaci were
widely used in this period.
Geometry was also vital for the taxation and management
of land. Architects and engineers used geometrical theorems
in major civic projects like Rome’s sophisticated water sup-
ply of aqueducts, fountains, sewers, public baths, and private
houses; in private enterprise such as the building of luxury
villas; and in the military. Th e Roman architect Vitruvius of
the fi rst century b.c.e. describes how to build a water system
for a city, as well as many other machines.
Th e Roman army employed surveyors for mapping mili-
tary terrain as well as for constructing and attacking siege de-
fenses and fortifi cations. One example of such a fortifi cation
is Hadrian’s Wall in Great Britain, a stone-and-turf wall that
ran for 73 miles across the width of the country at a height of
almost 20 feet and with regular forts. Roman roads tended
to be very straight, and roads within the empire might be
tunneled straight through a mountain. Surveyors used math-
ematical techniques and simple instruments like the dioptra,
or sighting rod, to keep the construction on track.calendars and clocks
By the Roman period the movements of the stars were well
understood. Th e traditional Roman calendar had 12 months
and a year consisted of 355 days. To keep the calendar year in
approximate agreement with the solar year, which is longer
than 355 days, the state priests in charge of the calendar had
to add a month every other year. In the fi rst century b.c.e. the
calendar was not properly managed, so in 45 b.c.e. Julius Cae-
sar replaced the old system with a solar calendar on the advice
of a Greek astronomer, Sosigenes of Alexandria. Th is system
was slightly altered again by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582, and
the Gregorian calendar is the one we still use today.
Th e Julian calendar reform shows that technical exper-
tise in astronomy belonged largely to the Greek tradition of
mathematical astronomy. Although many elite Romans took
a lay interest in the stars, they were not concerned with exac-
titude. Th e main source for astronomical theory was the Hel-
lenistic Period poem of Aratus of Soli (ca. 315–ca. 240 b.c.e.)
on stars and weather titled Phaenomena (Appearances). Th is
work had been adapted into verse from a much older astro-
nomical text, which by the time of the Roman Empire was, in
fact, rather out of date.
Caesar consulted foreign experts and then used the re-
sults to organize the way in which the Roman Empire counted
time. (Local cities and regions would have simultaneously
oft en used older methods as well.) Mathematical astronomy
thus had an enormous impact on the Roman world because944 science: Rome0895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i944 944 10/10/07 2:30:31 PM