The Negotiation of Meaning in Late Antique Clinical Practice: Alexander of Tralles and “Natural Remedies”

Treatment is a matter of negotiation of viewpoints and attitudes. This chapter examines first the content of Alexander’s natural remedies—what is included, what is not, and what can be made of both. It explores the implications of his characterization of remedies as “amulets”, which he justifies by his experience of their success and by the authority of other physicians; and as “natural”, by which he draws supposedly non-medical healing into the sphere of “scientific medicine.” The chapter demonstrates, first, that Alexander likely lived earlier than is often assumed and that, contrary to expectation, Christianity seems not to have influenced his practice at all. It then argues that his characterization and defence of “non-medical” healing constitutes an attempt to translate between professional and lay explanatory models of illness, which is open to multiple interpretations by readers, and that Alexander’s humane and practical approach to medical care led him to a more capacious notion of medical science.

© 2024 Jonathan Zecher.