Have you heard a bike about the fact that in ancient Rome a surgeon, if the patient was dying on the table, chopped off his hands? IA EAOMEDIA is digging in the history of Roman medicine to figure it out, though it is or just a horror story.
In ancient Rome, medicine was not that super -developed, but already stepped beyond magic rituals. Surgeons made a trepanation of the skull, cut out cataracts and even amputated the limbs. But the operations were risky: without normal anesthesia and antiseptics, patients often did not survive. And then a story walks on the Internet: they say, if the patient was dying under a knife, his hands were cut off.
Historians and sources like Galen or Celsus talk about Roman medicine, but not a word about chopping off hands. In Rome, doctors, especially Greek, were respected, although not always. Surgeons often worked in military hospitals, saving the soldiers. They could be condemned for failures, but punishment like fines or exiles were more real. There were no specific laws on the execution of doctors for the death of the patient in Rome.
The myth seems to be confused with the Hammurabi code from ancient Mesopotamia, where the surgeon could really cut off their hands for an unsuccessful operation. In Rome, this was not: doctors practiced without licenses, and anyone could be called a doctor. If the operation has failed, the doctor lost a reputation and customers, not a limb. The Romans trusted the gods and hygiene more than the doctors were punished. But rumors about severe punishments could be an exaggeration to keep the doctors in good shape.
So the cut of hands is rather a horror story than a fact. Roman medicine was harsh, but not so. Doctors risked reputation and wallet, not hands.
