Based on a conference held at Columbia University, New York, April 18-19, 2014.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preliminary Material -- 1 Popular Medicine in the Classical World / W.V. Harris -- 2 Pharmakopōlai: A Re-Evaluation of the Sources / Laurence M.V. Totelin -- 3 Asclepius: A Divine Doctor, A Popular Healer / Olympia Panagiotidou -- 4 Anatomical Votives: Popular Medicine in Republican Italy? / Rebecca Flemming -- 5 Between Public Health and Popular Medicine: Senatorial and Popular Responses to Epidemic Disease in the Roman Republic / Caroline Wazer -- 6 Metals in Medicine: From Telephus to Galen / Julia Laskaris -- 7 Crossing the Borders Between Egyptian and Greek Medical Practice / Isabella Andorlini -- 8 Representations of the Physician in Jewish Literature from Hellenistic and Roman Times / Catherine Hezser -- 9 Fear, Hope and the Definition of Hippocratic Medicine / Chiara Thumiger -- 10 Medical Care in the Roman Army during the High Empire / Ido Israelowich -- 11 How Popular Were the Medical Sects? / David Leith -- 12 Popular Medicines and Practices in Galen / Danielle Gourevitch -- 13 Folk Medicine in the Galenic Corpus / Vivian Nutton -- Bibliography -- Index.

Available to subscribing member institutions only.

The history of healthcare in the classical world suffers from notable neglect in one crucial area. While scholars have intensively studied both the rationalistic medicine that is conveyed in the canonical texts and also the ‘temple medicine’ of Asclepius and other gods, they have largely neglected to study popular medicine in a systematic fashion. This volume, which for the most part is the fruit of a conference held at Columbia University in 2014, aims to help correct this imbalance. Using the full range of available evidence - archaeological, epigraphical and papyrological, as well as the literary texts - the international cast of contributors hopes to show what real people in Antiquity actually did when they tried to avert illness or cure it.

Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on September 16, 2016).