Roman Medicine

Roman medicine belonged to a world in which learned theory, practical treatment, religion, magic and traditional remedies could all exist alongside one another. Audrey Cruse uses that mixed medical landscape to examine how people under Roman rule understood health, illness and healing, with particular attention to Roman Britain.

Archaeological and historical evidence brings practitioners, instruments and everyday medical practices into view, while the broader Greek inheritance shows how classical ideas travelled and changed across the empire. The book works best as an introduction to medicine as lived experience: not only a body of learned knowledge, but part of the ordinary material and cultural life of the Roman world.