This article examines Martial’s epigrams dealing with medical practitioners and their various interactions with others, especially with their patients.
It discusses his approach to medicine, the representatives of this discipline and the individuals affected by an illness under different rubrics which are, however, somewhat connected with each other: (1) the doctor as the bringer of death, (2) the doctor in a sexual context, (3) other dubious doctors and a few exceptions, and (4) medical discourse combined with other themes. In addition to the analysis of the conscious use of rhetorical elements and the creation of humour, connections are established with other (at first sight unrelated) epigrams of the poet’s entire corpus.
The full PDF is available here - Martial and ancient medicine.
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