525 



" The same usage obtained in Egypt and at Home. In the 

 latter place, it was the practice to carry the sick to the forum, 

 in order that the opinion of passengers might be taken on his 

 case ; but this practice gave way to a different one. 



"In subsequent times, it was the custom of wealthy persons, 

 in Greece and Rome, to employ such a vast number of slaves 

 that Seneca compares them to armies ; and he describes the 

 duties of some of them to be of a disgusting character. Amongst 

 the most useful of the functions performed by slaves were those 

 of physicians, surgeons, and compounders of medicine ; many 

 such are mentioned by the ancient Roman and Greek writers, 

 a few examples of which it may be proper to cite. Suetonius, 

 speaking of Domitius, the fom-th ancestor of Nero, says, that 

 having taken poison in his despair, he so much feared the 

 death which he had previously sought, that he discharged the 

 poison from his stomach, and rewarded with his freedom the 

 physician who had so skilfully and prudently rendered it innox- 

 ious. Seneca tells the same thing more plainly ; he says, ' Do- 

 mitius commanded his slave, who was also his physician, to 

 give him poison (medico eidemque servo suo).' Suetonius 

 quotes an epistle of Augustus to Agrippina, in which he says, 

 ' I send you also one of my slaves, who is a physician.' Pliny 

 the younger was cured of a dangerous disease by Harpocras, 

 whom he expressly describes as ' a slave, although a physician.' 

 " We have also a proof in Cicero's Oration for King Deio- 

 tarus, who was accused of an attempt to procure the assassi- 

 nation of Julius Caesar, on the evidence of one Phidlppus, 

 whom Cicero declares to have been the physician as well as 

 the slave of the king. There is a passage in Diogenes Laer- 

 tius, which proves not only the identity of the slave with the 

 physician, but alludes to the purchase of such a physician.' 

 Diogenes the Cynic, being offered for sale as a slave, was pur- 

 chased by Xeniades. Diogenes, in his usual insolent manner, 

 said to his new master, ' See that you do what I order you.' 



