Archagathus ( grc, Ἀρχάγαθος), a

Peloponnesian The Peloponnese (), Peloponnesus (; el, Πελοπόννησος, Pelopónnēsos,(), or Morea is a peninsula and geographic region in southern Greece. It is connected to the central part of the country by the Isthmus of Corinth land bridge which ...

, the son of

Lysanias Lysanias was the ruler of a small realm on the western slopes of Mount Hermon, mentioned by the Jewish historian Josephus and in coins from c. 40 BCE. There is also mention of a Lysanias dated to 29 in Gospel of Luke, Luke's Gospel. Lysanias in ...

, who settled at

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

as a practitioner of medicine around 219 BCE, and, according to

Lucius Cassius Hemina Lucius Cassius Hemina (2nd centuryBC) was a Roman historian. Life Little is known of his life. He apparently composed his annals in the period between the death of Terence and the revolution of the Gracchi. Work L. Cassius Hemina is principall ...

, was the first person who made it a distinct profession in that city. He was received in the first instance with great respect, he was accorded the '' Jus Quiritium'' – that is, the privileges of a free native of Rome – and a shop was bought for him at the public expense; but his practice was observed to be so severe, that he soon excited the dislike of the people at large and produced a complete disgust to the profession generally. In return for the favors he received from the Romans, he purged,

bled Bled (; german: Veldes,''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 146. in older sources also ''Feldes'') is a town on Lake Bled in the Upper C ...

, hacked, and cauterized them to such a degree, that at length they refused to tolerate such rough treatment any longer, and the commonwealth was purged of Archagathus himself. The practice of Archagathus seems to have been almost exclusively

surgical Surgery ''cheirourgikē'' (composed of χείρ, "hand", and ἔργον, "work"), via la, chirurgiae, meaning "hand work". is a medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a person to investigate or treat a pat ...

, and to have consisted, in a great measure, in the use of the knife and powerful caustic applications. John Bostock, ''History of Medicine''

Notes

People from the Peloponnese 3rd-century BC Roman physicians {{Ancient Roman medicine