WOMEN IN MEDICINE AND SURGERY 271 



extensive knowledge of drugs and simples, and who were 

 able to dress wounds and treat diseases with considerable 

 success. 



The first Greek freeman to practice medicine in Rome 

 was one Archagatos, about two centuries B.C. He was soon 

 followed by one of his countrymen named Asclepiades. 

 These two soon built up a great reputation as successful 

 practitioners, and were held in the highest esteem by the 

 people of Rome. In consequence of this and of the favor- 

 able conditions offered foreigners for the practice of the 

 healing art, there was soon a large influx of physicians and 

 surgeons from Greece, not only into Rome but also into 

 other parts of Italy. 



Not long after the arrival of Greek doctors in the capital 

 of the Roman world we learn of certain women physicians 

 in Rome who were held in high repute. Among these were 

 Victoria and Leoparda, both mentioned by the medical 

 writer, Theodorus Priscianus. To Victoria, Priscianus 

 dedicates the third book of his Rerum Medicarum, and in 

 the preface to this book he refers to her as one who has 

 not only an accurate knowledge of medicine, but also as 

 one who is a keen observer and experienced practitioner. 



The word medica, which occurs in Latin authors of the 

 classical period, testifies to the existence of the woman doc- 

 tor as early as the age of Augustus. 



But the most important documents bearing on women 

 physicians, not only in the city of Rome but also in Italy, 

 Gaul and the Iberian peninsula, are the large body of 

 epigraphic monuments which have recently been brought to 

 light, and which prove beyond all doubt that women were 

 not only obstetricians, but that they were successful prac- 

 titioners in the entire field of medical art. Thus a funeral 

 tablet found in Portugal tells of a woman who was a most 

 excellent physician medica optima while another de- 

 scribes the deceased not only as a woman incomparable for 



