UC Riverside

Slavery was common throughout the ancient Mediterranean world, but there has been little research accounting for enslaved individuals in historical narratives. The history of medicine has neglected enslaved peoples, despite their presence as physicians, aids, patients, and subjects of medical experimentation. This dissertation has two main aims. First, to rewrite the history of medicine from a bottom-up perspective using enslaved and marginalized perspectives. Secondly, to demonstrate that enslaved experiences varied greatly across the ancient Mediterranean. This research draws on literary evidence, such as medical treatises, and epigraphic evidence, such as grave inscriptions, to center the perspective of enslaved peoples from 300 BCE to 200 CE. First, I rectify past research on professional enslaved healers, which excluded midwives, and demonstrate that professional enslaved healers existed in Greece, not just Rome. In the second chapter, I turn towards non-professional enslaved healers, who performed necessary medical tasks requiring specialized knowledge, such as preparingpharmaceuticals. Third, I investigate enslaved peoples as patients, establishing that healing slaves was a public benefit, but came with limits, as illness could also make slaves returnable to their sellers. The fourth chapter considers slaves and prisoners as subjects of medical experimentation, including dissection, vivisection, and poison testing, all of which expressed state power. Altogether, I demonstrate that slaves and marginalized peoples were integral to health systems within the ancient Mediterranean at every juncture of medicine. Additionally, I elucidate the wide variety of statuses that enslaved peoples could experience through medicine, from the emperor’s physician to subjects of violent experimentation.