[Daily medical practice in the Roman Empire from the patients perspective: P. Aelius Aristides, a patient of Asklepios in Pergamon].
While the perspectives of patients are generally included in the social history of medicine during the early modern period, patients' accounts are largely overlooked in the study of earlier periods. For students of antiquity the task is particularly arduous, since meaningful, self-reflexive legacies that could be used to examine the dimensions of patient history are rare. For instance, patient accounts from the period of the Roman Empire are scarce, and rather problematic primary sources. Devotions to the healing god Asklepios, his cult and his medicine incorporate patients' perspectives, but in most cases little useful information is gained from them. An additional source is the hieroi logi of P. Aelius Aristides, who was the patient of Asklepios in Pergamon for many years. These testaments have a fictional element that presents a methodological challenge to the historian. Nevertheless, as this article shows, answers to many questions relating to patient history can be extrapolated from Aristides' testaments.
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D049690:History, Ancient; D008374:Manuscripts, Medical as Topic / Q000266:history*; D008511:Medicine; D010361:Patients / Q000266:history*; D011643:Publishing / Q000266:history*; D012068:Religion and Medicine; D018644:Roman World