Healthcare

[J.Alco]

What kind was there in the ancient world? Was there even any sort of organization to it? (a doctors guild, go to your local druid or priest if you feel ill, that sort of thing?) Was it relegated only to the rich and well-off, or could lower-class civilians access it as well? (Of course, I imagine slaves would be exempt). And in the military, did medical care extend to all men of rank and file? Or was priority to wounded and sick treated in terms of highest rank/ highest social position/ greatest damage?

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

I'm no expert, but from what I know, there seemed to be pretty decent medical technology in the Hellenistic and Roman eras. After the fall of Rome, it nearly ceased to exist in Europe until the Crusade era.

Medicine tended to be a mix of superstition and actual medice, depending on how good your doctor was.

Advanced medicine was reserved for the upper class mostly, though was somewhat available to everybody. For example, there is evidence of upper class remains with set bones, but at the same time lower class peoples would often have poorly fused bones after a break due to not having it properly set.

I was just reading something a couple days ago, I think it was in Tacitus about Claudius, that an law was passed that a slave abandoned by his master due to an illness was freed if he survived. This law was passed because too many people were abandonning slaves because they didn't want to pay for their medical care. So, at least in Rome at that time masters were supposed to take care of their slaves medically.

[Taedius]

As M. Aurelius Antoninus says, surgery was at least somewhat advanced on the Roman and Hellenic cultures. But an interesting thing to note, is that those who needed it most were prioritised for treatment. This meant of course soldiers, but in the cities the best surgeons often worked on gladiators, who were basically just slaves, trained and ordered to fight. But then again, gladiators then had much the same position as athletes today.

[cmacq]

A good friend of mine's wife is a doctor; and we've had this little healthcare and human mortality talk before and she emphatically insists that I of course am wrong. Yet, in my profession I have seen the mortal remains of literally many thousands of the pre- and/or protohistoric dead. Ghastly indeed, yet with this in mind even the most casual observer may note a simple truth which much of humankind, to including my friend's esteemed wife, can't handle.

[Disciple of Tacitus]

@cmacq. Well said.

@ J.Alco. I have read it more then once that Roman field medicine (with ample influence from conquered "factions") remained unparalleled until the 19th century.

[Krusader]

I'd recommend to take a peek at the Asklepios temple for Ptolemaioi or Asklepieion descriptions.

Also I recall the Asklepios article on Wikipedia seemed very well written and sourced last time I checked.