Roman Drugs and Medicine

There were few successes in the use of medication in the ancient world. However, the Romans had an excellent knowledge of anesthetics but all other so called 'cures' were developed through practices as similar as mixing poisons through alchemy. In fact, as simple sickness was so difficult to determine by the average doctor, many deaths in the ancient world were attributed to poisoning. This paranoia led to the development of many antidotes, some of which worked, and others that didn't, but much of the research provided valuable information for later doctors. Opium poppies (morphine), henbane seeds (scopolamine) and mandrake were used extensively, probably because pain was so frequent in medical treatments. There was a reason to fear the doctor back then.

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