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For almost half a century, Vivian Nutton has been a leading figure in the study of ancient (and less ancient) medicine. The field itself has been revolutionised over that time. In this volume distinguished colleagues and former students develop, in his honour, key themes of his ground-breaking scholarship. Spanning from the Bronze Age to the Digital Age, involving the cult of Artemis and the corpuscular theories of Asclepiades of Bithynia, the medicinal uses of beavers and the cost of health-care and wet-nursing, case-histories, remedy exchange and the medical repercussions of political assassination, this book has at its centre the pluralism and diversity of the ancient medical marketplace. The lively interplay between choice and competition, unity and division, communication and debate, so notable in Vivian Nutton's foundational vision of the world of classical medicine, is richly examined across these pages.
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MEDICINE AND MARKETS IN THE GRAECO-ROMAN WORLD AND BEYOND
M EDICINE AND M ARKETS IN THE G RAECO -R OMAN W ORLD AND B EYOND E SSAYS
ON
A NCIENT M EDICINE IN HONOUR OF
V IVIAN N UTTON Editors
Laurence M. V. Totelin and
Rebecca Flemming
The Classical Press of Wales
First published in 2020 by The Classical Press of Wales 15 Rosehill Terrace, Swansea SA1 6JN Tel: +44 (0)1792 458397 www.classicalpressofwales.co.uk Distributor in North America ISD, 70 Enterprise Drive, Suite 2, Bristol, CT 06010, USA Tel: +1 (860) 584-6546 Fax: +1 (860) 516-4873 www.isdistribution.com © 2020 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. ISBN 978-1-910589-78-6 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Typeset by Louise Jones, and printed and bound in the UK by Gomer Press, Llandysul, Ceredigion, Wales ––––––––––––––––– The Classical Press of Wales, an independent venture, was founded in 1993, initially to support the work of classicists and ancient historians in Wales and their collaborators from further afield. More recently it has published work initiated by scholars internationally . While retaining a special loyalty to Wales and the Celtic countries, the Press welcomes scholarly contributions from all parts of the world. The symbol of the Press is the Red Kite. This bird, once widespread in Britain, was reduced by 1905 to some five individuals confined to a small area known as ‘The Desert of Wales’ – the upper Tywi valley. Geneticists report that the stock was saved from terminal inbreeding by the arrival of one stray female bird from Germany. After much careful protection, the Red Kite now thrives – in Wales and beyond.
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CONTENTS Page Acknowledgements
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List of contributors
ix
Abbreviations and sigla
xiii
Introduction: Vivian Nutton and the rise of ancient medicine Rebecca Flemming
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PART I Prices and Exchange 1. The cost of health: rich and poor in imperial Rome Véronique Boudon-Millot 2. Healing correspondence: letters and remedy exchange in the Graeco-Roman world Laurence M. V. Totelin 3. Dioscorides on beavers John Scarborough
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4. The cost of a baby: how much did it cost to hire a wet-nurse in Roman Egypt? 41 Antonio Ricciardetto and Danielle Gourevitch
PART II Pluralism and Diversity 5. A return to cases and the pluralism of ancient medical traditions G.E.R. Lloyd 6. Malaria, childbirth and the cult of Artemis Elizabeth Craik
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71 87
7. Medicine, markets and movement in the Bronze Age Mediterranean: a Mycenaean healing deity at Hattuša-Bog˘ azköy Robert Arnot