The book deals with the Medicine of Greek and Roman Antiquity, from the first written monuments to the 7th century AD. It takes into account what Medicine was and how it was practiced, attempting above all to place it in the context of other developments in ancient society.

Such a work could be expanded almost indefinitely into a whole series of volumes, but in this study Professor Vivian Nutton chose to focus on three aspects of ancient Medicine, which provide complementary reasons why one should be interested in the medical world of such a distant past. First, he focused on the development of Western Medicine in general, then on the continued influence of ancient Medicine on modern perceptions of health and treatment, and finally on the diversity of ancient medical practice.

Archaeology and Paleopathology, research in libraries and archives, as well as in the rich papyrological deposits of Roman Egypt, have opened up new avenues of research into the environment of disease in antiquity. All this has transformed the study of ancient Medicine in the last fifty years from a stagnant state to one of the most fascinating areas of classical scholarship.