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In Rome, death was caused by a combination of poor sanitation, famine, disease, epidemics, malnutrition, and warfare that led to a decrease in Roman mortality rates. The development of health services was prolonged by the unsympathetic attitudes of the Romans towards the sick.

Dioscorides
Dioscorides studied botany and pharmacology in Tarsus. He became a well-known army surgeon for Rome. While traveling with the army, Dioscorides was able to experiment with the medical properties of many plants. Compared to his predecessors, his work was considered the largest and most thorough in regards to naming and writing about medicines; many of Dioscorides predecessors’ work was lost. Within his five books, Dioscorides mentions approximately 1,000 simple drugs. Also contained in his books, Dioscorides refers to opium and mandragora as a sleeping potion that can be used as a natural surgical anesthetic.

Soranus
According to the Suda, he trained at the medical school in Alexandria and practiced in Rome. Soranus was apart of the Methodist School of Asclepiades, which fostered the ideals of the Hippocratic doctrine. Soranus’s most notable work was his book Gynecology, in which he discussed many topics that are considered modern ideas such as birth control, pregnancy, midwife’s duties, and post-childbirth care. He accounts for the internal difficulties that could arise during labor from both the mother and the fetus. He also did work with fractures, surgery, and embryology.

Galen
Although Galen studied the human body, dissection of human corpses was against Roman law, so instead, he used pigs, apes, sheep, goats, and other animals. Through studying animal dissections, Galen applied his animal anatomy findings and developed a theory of human anatomy.

Galen wrote a short essay called; The Best Doctor Is Also A Philosopher, where he writes that a physician needs to be knowledgeable about not just the physical, but additionally logical and ethical philosophy. Galen thought that eleven years of study was an adequate amount of time to make a competent physician.

The writings of Galen survived longer than the writings of any other medical researchers of antiquity. [18]

Asclepiades
Asclepiades theorized the body was made of differently shaped atoms that were interacting in pores throughout the body. These atoms were either round, square, triangular. Asclepiades noted that as long as the atoms were flowing freely and continuously, then the health of the human was maintained. He believed that if the atoms were too large or the pores were too constricted, then illness would present in multiple symptoms. He believed that if the atoms were too large or the pores were too constricted, then illness would present in multiple symptoms such as fever, spasms, or even paralysis. Asclepiades used techniques with the intent to cause the least amount of discomfort while continuing to cure the patient.