[379] See Eustathius’ Commentarii in Homeri Iliadem, loc. cit.; and Dr. Adams' Paulus Ægineta, vol. ii. p. 426. Plato, in his Republic, discourses as to whether the potion of Pramnian wine, etc., given to Machaon (whom by mistake he names Eurypylus), was not too inflammatory in its character.—(Lib. iii. c. 14.)
[380] The treatise in question, though usually printed amongst the Hippocratic works, is not admitted to be genuine by any of the translators or commentators upon Hippocrates, with the exception of Foes.—See Dr. Adams’ Works of Hippocrates, vol. i. p. 121.
[381] Xenophon’s expression (ιατροὺς κατέστησαν ὀκτω) has been supposed by some commentators to indicate that eight soldiers, perhaps previously experienced to some extent in tending the wounded, were selected and improvised into medical officers, rather than that eight were chosen out of a greater number of medical attendants present with the army. But, in all probability, there were present among the ten thousand Greeks more than eight men who professed the imperfect medical knowledge pertaining to the surgeons of that day. In a later part of the Anabasis (v. 8), Xenophon, in defending himself against accusations of alleged severity on his part, in the course of the retreat, to some of the soldiers under his command, argues for its necessity on the principle that “physicians also use incisions and caustics for the good of their patients.” He owns to having urged some, when themselves unwilling, to continue their march towards the shores of the Black Sea, through the cold and snows of Armenia, “because,” says he, “sitting down and rest made the blood to congeal, and the toes to rot off, which was the case of a great many,”—a result that lately happened only too frequently to the soldiers of our own armies on the opposite or Crimean shores of the Euxine.
[382] De Rebus Gestis Alexandri Magni, lib. ix. cap. 18. In lib. iv. cap. 25, an account is given of the extraction of an arrow from the king’s shoulder, by the surgeon Philip of Acarnania, who had previously cured Alexander of the attack of fever which followed on his bathing, when overheated, in the cold waters of the Cydnus. Curtius speaks (iii. 13) of Philip as one “inter nobiles medicos,” who were present with the army. When describing the well-known incident of the fever draught given by this physician Philip to Alexander, Arrian speaks of him, not as a medical attendant upon the king, but as one “in whose extraordinary skill in physic Alexander had great confidence, because of his success in the camp,” or in attending upon other members of the army.—(Lib. ii. cap. 4.) Alexander himself affected some knowledge of medicine. At least, when Craterus was invalided, and Pausanias, the physician in attendance upon him, proposed to give him a dose of hellebore, Alexander (as we are informed by Plutarch) wrote a letter to Pausanias, expressing his great anxiety about the case, and desiring him to be cautious in the use of this medicine. In Alexander’s own chest-wound, as detailed in the text above, the head of the arrow possibly did not enter the cavity of the thorax, as its point was, according to Plutarch’s account, fixed in the bone (the scapula or a rib?). When Julius Cæsar fell under the daggers of his assassins, out of the twenty-three wounds which he received, there was none that was mortal, in the opinion of the surgeon Antistisius, except the second, a penetrating wound of the breast. (See Suetonius’ Julius, c. 82.) After Epaminondas was fatally wounded at the battle of Mantinea, he refused to allow the iron of the spear with which he was struck to be extracted till the victory was decided—aware that, from its site, death from bleeding would immediately follow—an event which the result confirmed.—(Cornel. Nepos, lib. xv. c. 9.)
[383] At the famous battle at the Lake Regillus, fought 497 years before the commencement of the Christian era, Livy tells us that after Titus Herminius slew Mamilius, he was himself struck with a javelin while stripping the body of his enemy; and on being brought back to the camp victorious, he died on the first dressing of his wound (inter primam curationem expiraverit).—Livii Historiarum Libri, lib. ii. cap. xx. It is not, however, stated whether this cure of the wound was attempted by the hand of a military comrade, or by that of a surgeon. The same historian mentions that a few years later (B.C. 483), after the battle in which the Romans defeated the Hetrurians, the surviving consul, M. Fabius, distributed his wounded soldiers, for the purpose of cure, among the senators residing in Rome (saucios milites curandos dividit patribus).—See Livy, lib. ii. cap. xlvii. And Tacitus, when describing the catastrophe resulting from the fall of the amphitheatre at Fidena, in the reign of Tiberius, states that those injured and wounded by the accident were received into the houses of the citizens, and there carefully attended to, as (he adds) was the custom in former times after great battles (veterum institutis similis, qui magna post proelia saucios largitione et cura sustentabant).—Annal., lib. iv. c. 63.
[384] See lib. vii. cap. v. “Telorum ejectio.”
[385] Dr. Adams’ Translation, book vi. § lxxxviii. vol. ii. p. 418.
[386] Xiphilin gives the following account from Dion Cassius of the various difficulties and disasters encountered by Severus, from the rivers, marshes, woods, stratagems, etc., of the Caledonians:—“Severus, wishing to reduce the whole island under his power, entered into Caledonia, and, in marching through it, encountered the greatest difficulties; for he had to cut down woods, make roads over mountains, mounds across the marshes, and bridges over the rivers. He fought no battle, nor did he ever meet with the forces of the enemy in array; but they advisedly placed sheep and oxen in the way of our troops, so that when our soldiers attempted to seize the booty, and were thus drawn far from the line of march, they were easily cut off. The waters and lakes, likewise, were destructive to our men, as by dividing them they fell into the ambuscades prepared for them; and when they could not be brought off, they were slain by their comrades, that they might not fall into the hands of the enemy. Owing to these causes there died not less than fifty thousand of our troops.”—Xiphilin’s Excerpta, p. 305. Severus himself seems to have suffered in his health during this Scottish campaign; for during the most of it, he required, says Dion, to be carried, on account of his weakness, in a closed litter (nam plurimum propter imbecilitatem operta lectica vehebatur—p. 305). Both Dion (p. 307) and Herodian (p. 153) mention that he was disabled by gout.
[387] Herodian’s account of the labours and difficulties of Severus in this campaign sufficiently indicates the sources of malaria and disease to which his army was subjected, and, at the same time, affords a curious statement regarding the condition and habits of the ancient Caledonians:—“Severus’ first care (says Herodian) was to throw bridges across the morasses, that his soldiers might be able to pursue the enemy over the dangerous places, and have the opportunity of fighting on firm ground; for as the greater part of the island is frequently overflowed by the tides, these constant inundations make the country full of lakes and marshes. In these the barbarians swim, or wade through them up to their middle, regardless of mud or dirt, as they always go almost naked; for they are ignorant of the use of clothes, and only cover their necks and bellies with fine plates of iron, which they esteem as an ornament and sign of wealth, and are as proud of it as other barbarians are of gold. They likewise dye their skins with the pictures of various kinds of animals, which is one principal reason for their wearing no clothes, because they are loath to hide the fine paintings on their bodies. But they are a very warlike and fierce people, and arm only with a narrow shield and spear, and a sword hanging by their naked bodies; unacquainted with the use of habergeons and helmets, which they think would be an obstruction to their wading through the ponds and marshes of their country, which, perpetually sending up thick gross vapours, condense the air and make it always foggy.”—Hart’s Herodian, pp. 153, 154. Dion Cassius, who lived at the date of Severus’ expedition, gives, when describing the expedition, an account of our Caledonian ancestors that is in no degree more flattering. “The Caledonians,” says he, “both possess rugged and dry mountains, and desert plains full of marshes. They have neither castles nor towns; nor do they cultivate the ground; but live on their flocks and hunting, and the fruits of some trees; not eating fish, though extremely plenteous. They live in tents, naked, and without buskins. Wives they have in common, and breed up their children in common. The general form of government is democratic. They are addicted to robbery; fight in cars; have small and swift horses. Their infantry are remarkable for speed in running, and for firmness in standing. Their armour consists of a shield, and a short spear, in the lower end of which is a brazen apple, whose sound when struck may terrify the enemy. They have also daggers. Famine, cold, and all sorts of labour they can bear, for they will even stand in their marshes, for many days, up to the neck in water, and, in the woods, will live on the bark and roots of trees. They prepare a certain kind of food on all occasions, of which taking only a bit the size of a bean, they feel neither hunger nor thirst.”—Xiphilin’s Excerpta, p. 304; and Pinkerton’s Inquiry into the Early History of Scotland, vol. i. p. 438.
[388] See Gordon’s Journey through Scotland, p. 75. Bruce, in his work on The Roman Wall, p. 214, speaks of the ancient city of Borcovicus as likely, when excavated, to prove “the Pompeii of Britain.” Stukeley, in a similar spirit, declared it the “Tadmor of Britain.”