Medicine

• Medicines (giatricḗ)
  • Regimen (díæta)
  • Drug (phármacon)
  • Surgery (chīrurgía)
• Diseases (nósos)
  • Acute (oxī̂a)
  • Chronic (chrónia)

Regimen

Recommendations

• Red wine
• Honey (jarred)
• Oil
  • Olive oil (canned)
  • Coconut oil
• Grain
  • Bread
  • Pasta
  • Corn tortillas
  • White rice
• Lentils
• Herbs
  • Cilantro
  • Oregano
  • Paprika
• Fruit
  • Tomato paste (canned)
  • Lemon
  • Onions
  • Bell peppers
• Vinegar
  • Apple cider vinegar
• Coffee

Consider portability & ease of preparation.

The spices listed are common spices used in Roman meals, but are also just what I like. Change for flavor & what’s locally available.

If you have access to refrigeration, give fish sauce a try. I can only find Thai import, but it was widely popular among not only the Greeks & Romans but Arabs too.

Drugs

Teeth

Disease Prevention:

• Dill & white wine – brush.
• Milk & cheese.

Cleaner/Whitener:

• Wine, rose water, & chaste tree leaves – mix & apply.
• Egg yolk, olive oil, myrtle, & honey – mix & apply.

Breath Freshener:

• Barley, salt, & honey – eat.
• Black helleborus – chew.

Anagelsic:

• Pine needles & vinegar – boil & wash.
• Juniper leaves & vinegar – boil & wash.
• Mulberries – concoct.
• Dried pumpkin – concoct & wash.
• Creeping cinquefoil – concoct & wash.
• Colchicum – small dosage.
• Bitter nightshade – concoct & apply.
• Marjoram – concoct & apply.
• Acanthus – concoct & apply.
• Caper – concoct & apply.
• Asparagus – concoct & apply.

Soother:

• Fig-tree root, nut grass, honey, & burning bush.
• Fig-tree root, flat sedge, smoked rue, & burning bush.

Surgery

Bandage

For any sort of injury:

• Wash with pure water.
• Clean with alcohol (e.g. wine, vodka).
• Salve with oil (e.g. olive, coconut).
• Wrap with fabric (e.g. linen, cotton).

Dogs

Dogs are used to clean wounds by licking them.

The ancients acknowledged the dog as a medically relevant animal:

• Remove foreign bodies, such as thorns.
• Feels the need to elevate its injured leg, as Hippocrates prescribes.
• Can sense which herbs induce vomiting, to remedy something eaten which upsets the stomach.

Diseases

Acute

Caused by the imbalance of yellow bile or blood.

• Fever

The abundance of heat.

• Frenzy

A disturbed state, accompanied by agitation & dementia.

• Cardiaca

The affliction of the heart with fear.

• Lethargy

The overpowering of the brain, accompanied by forgetfulness & incessant sleep.

• Synachis

The choking of the throat by pain.

• Phleumon

The abundance of heat in the stomach, accompanied by swelling or pain, afterwards leading to fever.

• Pleurisy

A sharp pain in the side, accompanied by fever & bloody sputum.

• Peripleumonia

The affliction of the lungs, accompanied by severe pain & gasping.

• Apoplexy

The choking (to death) on a sudden effusion of blood.

• Spasm

The contraction of sinews, accompanied by severe pain.

• Tetanus

The contraction of nerves from the neck to the back.

• Telum

A pain in the side.

• Ileos

A pain of the intenstines.

• Lymphaticus

Also called rabies. Rage or madness resulting from the bite or froth of a rabid dog.

• Carbuncle

A wound which at first is red but then turns black.

• Pestilence

Also called plague. A contagion which causes sudden weakness, accompanied by swellings & death.

Chronic

Caused by the imbalance of phlegm or black bile.

• Headache

The affliction of the head.

• Scothomia

Sudden episodes of blidness leading to vertigo.

• Vertigo

A spinning sensation in the eyes, caused by turbulence of the arteries & veins.

• Epilepsy

Sudden episodes of falling down to the ground with spasms, arising from the anterior ventricles of the brain.

• Mania

So-called bi-polar disorder.

Episodes of insanity or madness, arising from the posterior ventricle of the brain.

• Melancholy

So-called depression & schizophrenia.

Episodes of anguish or delusions, arising from the interior ventricle of the brain.

• Typus

Episodes of accesses & rescensiones of fever.

• Rheum

A discharge firsr from the nostrils, moving to the throat, leading to hoarsness, then finally to the lungs.

• Coryza

A draining from the head to the bone of the nose, accompanied by sneezing.

• Branchos

The choking of the throat.

• Hoarseness

The loss of voice.

• Peripleumonia

The swelling of the lungs, accompanied by an effusion of bloody foam.

• Hæmoptysis

The issuing forth of blood from the mouth.

• Consumption

The ulceration of & swelling in the lungs.

• Cough

An affliction in the chest.

• Apostem

An abcess.

• Empiesis

An abcess in the side or stomach, accompanied by pain, fever, coughing, & copious forthing & purulence.

• Hepaticus

The affliction of the liver.

• Lienitis

The affliction of the spleen.

• Dropsy

An excess below the skin, accompanied by swelling distension & fetid exhalation.

• Nephrosis

The affliction of the kidneys.

• Paralysis

The affliction by reason of phlegm & black bile’s chill.

• Cachexia

The injury of the body by intemperance, poor treatment, or slow recovery following a disease.

• Atrophy

The weakness of the body by hidden causes & slow convalescence.

• Scarcia

The excessive increase in flesh of fat.

• Sciatica

The glutination of the vertical bones—i.e. the meeting of the points of the hip bones at the pelvis—caused by excess phlegm.

• Gout

The swelling of the feet, accompanied by mortal pain.

• Arthritis

The affliction of the joints.

• Cauculus

The stone of excess phlegm in the bladder.

• Strangury

The constriction causing difficulty to urinate

• Diarrhea

The continual flow of the bowels without vomit.

• Dysentry

The ulceration of the intestines which follows diarrhea.

• Lientery

The sliding of food through the intestines.

• Colic

An affliction of the intestines.

• Rhagades

Also called hemorrhoids. A fissure (or many) at the rear oriface.

References

• Isidore of Seville, St. The Etymologies.
• Hippocrates. Humors.
• Hippocrates. On the Nature of Man.
• Hippocrates. Prognostic.
• Hippocrates. Regimen.
• Galen. On the Faculties of Aliments.
• Galen. On the Natural Faculties.
• Galen. On the Usefulness of Parts.