New publication: Questions and answers on ancient medicine

Why do round wounds heal slowly? Why do scars itch? How does acne develop? Why does one turn red with anger but pale with fear? Probably in the 2nd century AD, in the language of scientific medicine, in Greek, a few dozen questions about the human body and its healing were compiled and presented together with (often several) correct answers. The author was believed to be a learned physician (iatrosophist) named Cassius, perhaps the personal physician of the Roman emperor Tiberius.

The work was given great importance in the early modern period: It was printed in Latin along with advice on medicines against the plague. Later it fell into oblivion. Kai Brodersen has now translated the small work into German for the first time and made it accessible in a Greek-German edition. Thus Cassius Iatrosophista offers us an original insight into the understanding of health and disease in antiquity.