[Physicians in ancient Rome--and the attitude towards them]

The paper attempts to trace and sketch very briefly the history, role and status of professional physicians in Rome from the 8th to the 3th century BC. The epigrafic sources are even at the best of times meagre and one has to draw heavily upon written sources, especially from the first century AD. A brief sketch of traditional Roman folkmedicine, traces of which still linger in later latin medical literature, and the strong traditions the Romans had of self-care, is given. The Roman public were generally suspicious of physicians, who worked for a fee, but the authorities welcomed the profession and allowed it to settle in Rome, as well as granted it certain privileges. The level of education differed enormously from one physician to the next, since anyone could profess to be a physician without training or proper skills. Thus the range goes from useless quacks to highly educated physicians. They had the right to form guilds like other craftsmen. Physicians were mainly either slaves or freedmen, but there are freeborn among them as well. They worked on all levels of society. Hospitals were built in the fortresses along the Roman borders and a description of the ones found in Vetera Castra in modern Germany is given. Literature spanning from the midfirst century BC to the end of first century AD reveals a growing resentment and an increasingly caustic tone towards physicians and their profession - the impression one gets is that these written attacks are caused by a mixture of cultural and social bias and resentment towards useless and dangerous physicians.