Classics 250 - Week 1 Lecture + Reading Notes

Classical antiquity

A period of history focusing on the cultures of Greece and Rome from about the 8th century BCE to the 5th century CE

Also known as the Greco-Roman era

Ancient Greece Time Periods

1. Iron Age (1100-800 BCE)

2. Archaic (800-480 BCE)

3. Classical (480-323 BCE)

4. Hellenistic (323-146 BCE)

5. Roman Greece (146 BCE - 324 CE)

How the BCE-CE Timeline Works

• BCE dates go largest to smallest

• CE dates go smallest to largest

What century is 499-400 BCE in?

fifth century BCE

What century is 399-300 BCE in?

fourth century BCE

What century is 1-100 CE in?

first century CE

What century is 1901-2000 CE in?

20th century

Describe Ancient Greek Society

• Geographically restricted

  • Overall country

  • cities/towns

• By mountains, valleys, and sea

Ancient Greek Society in general

• Geographical restriction meant less contact with outside people

• It was rare to go as far as China, southeast Asia, or farther south than Ethiopia

• Most people lived in small, agricultural areas

• Even cities were relatively small; larges had ca. 15,000 inhabitants, but most had ca. 2,000

Ancient Greek society disease profile

Results of relative geographic isolation

• Each locality had different disease profile

• Many disease descriptions don’t match modern ones

• Many physicians traveled a lot to reach different towns

• Or patients traveled considerable distances to reach doctors

Ancient reports of types of disease

• Degenerative diseases less common

  • because many people didn’t live to old age, though keep in mind that “average” age expectancy is skewed by high infant mortality rates

• Cancers less common

  • because there were fewer carcinogens in the environment (in contract to our modern industrial society)

• Interest in reporting epidemics (plagues)

  • may reasons: such events were highly unusual but also frightening, especially since people didn’t know the cause

Diseases found now and in ancient Greece

• coughs and colds

• Jaundice and other liver infections

• parasitic infections of GI tract

• Kidney and bladder infections

• venereal diseases

• allergies (ex: asthma)

• eye diseases such as glaucoma, conjunctivitis

• epilepsy

• leprosy (Hansen’s disease)

• skeletal injuries and abnormalities such as:

  • fractures and breaks

  • disolocations

  • dwarfism and acromegaly

• migraines and other headaches

• mental disorders

• malaria

• ulcers

• arthritis

• tuberculosis

Principal developments: the English language

Roman invasion of Britain, 55-54 BCE (brings Latin in)

• Germanic migrations to Britain, 5th-6th centuries CE

• Church Latin in Britain, 6th-7th centuries CE

• Viking invasions of Britain, 8th century CE

• Norman invasion of Britain, 1066 CE

• Late Medieval through mid-Renaissance in Britain (1200-1600 CE)

  • French, Greek, Latin used; modern English develops

What language did the Roman invasion of Britain (55-54 BCE) bring into the development of the English language?

Latin

When did the Roman invasion of Britain occur?

55-54 BCE

When did Germanic migrations to Britain occur?

5th-6th centuries CE

When did Church Latin in Britain occur?

6th-7th centuries CE

When did Viking invasions of Britain occur?

8th century CE

When did the Normal invasion of Britain occur?

1066 CE

When did the late Medieval through mid-Renaissance in Britain occur?

1200-1600 CE

Old English

5th-11th centuries

Middle English

1066-late 15th century

Modern English

late 15th century - present

Why are Greek and Latin used as the mane medical languages?

• Green & Latin spread across Europe and into Britain by Romans

• Remained as “scholarly’ languages

• Medicine seen as a ‘scholarly’ profession

• Special, ‘universal’ language needed

• Ancient Greek and Latin are static - no changes

• Terms created from Greek and Latin, also borrowed like from ancient medical writers (ex: Hippocrates)