title: [Pharmacology in ancient Rome. First appearance, development, extension].
abstract: The history of Roman pharmacology is ponctuated with ideological debates about relevance of this art. Thus, Hippocrates --a contemporary of Socrates who was teaching that "science of remedies and science of poisons are the same"--was given credit for favourable mood towards pharmaceuticals by Scribonius Largus on the basis of therapeutic complementarity. Among the Latin doctors of the late Roman Empire, Marcellus Empiricus and Caelius Aurelianus, Hippocrates appeared as an authority favourable towards medication, especially in a fictitious letter written by Marcellus to the Claudian emancipated slave Callistus. Likewise, popular philosophy has taken over the Socratic antinomy between remedia and uenena. Last but not least, Sextius Niger wrote a pharmacopoeia attested as an official source by Celsus and plentifully consulted by Pliny the Elder: the Naturalis historia allows to delimit Sextius' contribution to the recurring controversy about use of pharmaceuticals. In such a context, the antipharmaceutical argument entered by Asclepiades of Bithynia fulfils a provocative function, the historical impact of which needs to be assessed according to the present-day speculation about "useful, useless or dangerous medicines".
authors: Yves
authors: Y
authors: Lehmann
authors: Hélène
authors: H
authors: Lehmann
mesh_terms: D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D010600:Pharmacology / Q000266:history*; D018644:Roman World / Q000266:history*