Overview

In his writing on surgery, famous ancient Greek physician Hippocrates (c. 460-377 B.C.) is credited with saying, "He who desires to practice surgery must go to war." What Hippocrates meant was that it was only during warfare that a physician could learn about closing wounds, infection, and human anatomy and become skilled at using the variety of surgical and other medical instruments in the doctor's kit. While caring for wounded soldiers was not always a priority for ancient military commanders, the medical care of wounded soldiers was a hallmark of Greek armies. Other armies learned from them. It was only after the heavy influences from the Greek tradition of military medicine that, by the first century A.D., the art of Roman military medicine rivaled the art of their conduct of warfare as it was carried...