Illness and health in the ancient world

This is the first in a series of vignettes about health, disease and care giving practices in the ancient worlds of Greece (1000 BC-100 BC) and Rome (1st AD-500 AD). Attention is directed to what the better known conditions were, what structures existed for the delivery of care, what the commonly held health beliefs were, who the most likely care attendants were and what psych-cultural changes occurred which brought about improvements in health care. Thus the series is about the early origins and development of the Western cultural tradition of health care practices. They demonstrate that there was a recognised community need for health care structures to exist and that the association between healing and religious belief began very early.