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This long running and established book series publishes scholarly discussions of literary, historical and cultural issues from European classical antiquity and studies of classical ideas in medieval and Renaissance Europe.
The series published an average of one volume per year over the last 5 years.
The series published an average of one volume per year over the last 5 years.
Roman Polymath
Volume Editor:
This long running and established book series publishes scholarly discussions of literary, historical and cultural issues from European classical antiquity and studies of classical ideas in medieval and Renaissance Europe.
The series published an average of one volume per year over the last 5 years.
The series published an average of one volume per year over the last 5 years.
Editor-in-Chief:
In Memoriam: John Scarborough
Studies in Ancient Medicine considers the medical traditions of ancient civilizations. The Graeco-Roman traditions are the focus of the series, but Byzantine, Medieval and early Islamic medicine is also included, as is medicine in Egyptian, Near Eastern, Armenian and other related cultures.
The series is intended for readers with interests in Classics, Ancient History, Ancient Philosophy, Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, History of Medicine and Science, Intellectual History, Byzantium, Islam, as well as for those whose professional involvement in medical practice gives them an interest in the history and traditions of their field.
The series includes monographs, critical editions, translations and commentaries on medical texts and collective volumes on the theory and practice of public and private medicine in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, drawing on written sources and other historical and archaeological evidence. The series also contains annotated bibliographies of published works relevant to particular subfields and lexica of medical terms in the various ancient traditions.
The series published an average of two volumes per year over the last 5 years.
Studies in Ancient Medicine considers the medical traditions of ancient civilizations. The Graeco-Roman traditions are the focus of the series, but Byzantine, Medieval and early Islamic medicine is also included, as is medicine in Egyptian, Near Eastern, Armenian and other related cultures.
The series is intended for readers with interests in Classics, Ancient History, Ancient Philosophy, Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, History of Medicine and Science, Intellectual History, Byzantium, Islam, as well as for those whose professional involvement in medical practice gives them an interest in the history and traditions of their field.
The series includes monographs, critical editions, translations and commentaries on medical texts and collective volumes on the theory and practice of public and private medicine in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, drawing on written sources and other historical and archaeological evidence. The series also contains annotated bibliographies of published works relevant to particular subfields and lexica of medical terms in the various ancient traditions.
The series published an average of two volumes per year over the last 5 years.
(Discontinued series)
Editor:
Studies in the Representation of Physical and Mental Suffering
Why is it so difficult to talk about pain? As we do today, the Greeks and Romans struggled to communicate their pain: this required a rich and subtle vocabulary which had to be developed over time. Pain Narratives traces the development of this language in literary, philosophical, and medical texts from across antiquity: poets, physicians, and philosophers contributed to an ever-growing lexicon to articulate their own and others’ feelings. The essays within this volume uncover the expanding Greco-Roman vocabulary of pain, analyse the medical discussions on pain symptoms, and explore the religious reinterpretations of pain concepts in late antiquity.
Studies in the Representation of Physical and Mental Suffering
Why is it so difficult to talk about pain? As we do today, the Greeks and Romans struggled to communicate their pain: this required a rich and subtle vocabulary which had to be developed over time. Pain Narratives traces the development of this language in literary, philosophical, and medical texts from across antiquity: poets, physicians, and philosophers contributed to an ever-growing lexicon to articulate their own and others’ feelings. The essays within this volume uncover the expanding Greco-Roman vocabulary of pain, analyse the medical discussions on pain symptoms, and explore the religious reinterpretations of pain concepts in late antiquity.
Author:
Abstract
Doxographies and school texts used lists to distil philosophical reflection on emotional experience, to provide a pleasant variety in speech-craft, and to craft a language for articulating the varieties of pain. These lists have largely been ignored by scholars of ancient emotion and philosophy alike, but were widely utilized among ancient students and readers. They follow a taxonomic structure, with the Stoic generic passions (pain, pleasure, fear, and desire) further divided into species. Pain (
Author:
Abstract
This chapter explores the accounts of pain in the Problemata Ethica of Alexander of Aphrodisias. After clarifying why pain becomes a pressing philosophical problem for Alexander in the face of Aristotle’s legacy, I will reconstruct and evaluate the various ways in which Alexander, equipped with conceptual tools from Aristotle and the Stoics, attempts to capture the nature of pain and thereby redefine its relation to pleasure. I will argue that he is more sensitive than Aristotle to the varieties of pain and how algedonic properties are related to each other the merit of his engagement does not consist in providing a systematic or unified account of pain but in revealing pain as a complex or even a hybrid phenomenon. In this light, the opposition between pleasure and pain is not as symmetrical as it appears prima facie.
Author:
Abstract
Augustine did not write a treatise on pain, but in City of God he gave a voice to a patient terrified of further surgery. Here, and in the metaphor of ‘Christ the doctor’, his language does not blur the pain of cutting and burning to save the patient from physical or spiritual death. He thought that human beings are a body-soul complex, so bodily pain is experienced by the soul, and emotional pain is described with the language of physical pain. Augustine did not dismiss physical suffering, or commend self-inflicted pain. He held that everything, even pain inflicted by demons, happens by the will or with the permission of God. Pain is never undeserved: it is a consequence of sin, whether individual or inherited in human nature. Bad people experience pain as punishment, but for good people it is spiritual training. Pain, of body or mind, is resistance to something which causes us distress because we do not want to lose God’s good creation. Pain demonstrates that there is still some goodness to lose.
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Abstract
Modern studies have consistently shown that witnesses’ perception of the pain of others is moderated by a range of factors, including group membership, status, and ‘race’. This subjectivity has clear consequences for the effective depiction of pain by artists and the ability of that pain to evoke empathy in observers. Roman declamation, particularly controversiae, provides a rich source for examining this problem, given that emotional persuasion was one of the central techniques used by successful speakers, and that speeches were unconstrained by the need to accurately represent political or historical elements. Using two case studies (10.4 and 2.5) from Seneca the Elder’s collection, this chapter demonstrates that a largely common group of speakers uses quite different approaches to convey deliberately inflicted physical pain depending on the status of the victims in relation to that of the declamatory audience. This suggests that Roman declaimers were well aware of the subjectivity of pain as an experience and the vital role of audience empathy in communicating pain.
Author:
Abstract
Ignatius of Antioch’s anticipation of death and its preceding ordeals appears openly enthusiastic, a stance which has incurred suggestions of an irrational mentality and an unhealthy predilection for pain; he has frequently been described as “neurotic”. This chapter challenges views that his anticipation of torture would necessarily have indicated an “abnormal mentality” to his first audiences. It offers an alternative reading of his most infamous statements on impending torture: they can be re-configured as not only rational but exemplary. Rational choice theory is employed to show that his decision to embrace martyrdom can be construed as the sound conclusion of a costs-benefits analysis, and comparison is drawn between his literary imagination of torture and the Stoic practice of praemeditatio futurorum malorum. This chapter concludes that Romans 4–5, regardless of authorial intent, held the potential to be understood by contemporary audiences as demonstrating a form of prophylactic mental preparation.