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86
ANCIENT TIMES.
medicis, nee tamen sine medicina). But he meant by this
only to say that in Rome until the immigration of Greek
doctors of whom he soon afterwards speaks there were
really no persons who deserved the name of doctors and he
remarks that Greek medicine was expected with joyful
eagerness but that when a man came to make its acquaintance,
he was undeceived about it (Medicine vero etiam
avidus, donee expertam damnavit) ; he corrects himself in
a later passage by saying that the calling itself was not
alluded to so much as the particular kind of practice then
carried on*
The Greek influence had made itself felt in Rome long
before Romans were acquainted with the scientific acquirements
of Greek doctors ; and it is indicative of the mode
of thought of that period that this influence showed itself
first in the sphere of religious mysticism. Already, at' 1
an earlier period, the Romans, during severe epidemics,.\
had had recourse to the oracles, and to the healthdeities
of the Greeks, who were propitiated in conjunction
with their native Gods. A temple was dedicated
to APOLLO as Healer during a pestilence which raged ,
in Rome in the fifth century B.C.f In the year 291
B.C. the service of ASKLEPIOS was transplanted from
Epidauros to Rome ; a proceeding which has been enlarged
upon by various authors with poetic ornamentation and
even glorified by the painter's art.I In the year 154 B.C.
a Collegium Aisculapii et Hygeise was erected in Rome,
the document of foundation of which has been preserved
in an inscription found in the Garden of the Palestrine
Palace.§ As Rome after the Punic wars grew up to that
* PLINIUS op. cit. xxix, 8.
f Livius iv, 25, 29. vii, 20. xl, 51.
X VAI.ER. MAXIM, i, 6; 8, Livius x, 47. xxix, 22.—OVID : Metam. xv, v.
626-744.—PANOFKA; Asklepios und die Asklepiaden, Berlin" 1840, S. 52 u.
Tafel ii, 3.—BOTTIGER in K. SPRENGEL'S Beitragcn 2. Gesch. d. Med., Hal'le
1795, i, 2, S. 163 et seq.
§ SPON : Recherches curieuses d'antiquite', Lyon 1683, p. 326.343 and reprinted
by J. ROSENBAUM : K. Sprengel's Versuch einer Geschichte d. Arznei-