Roman battlefield wound care

[guy]

 

Below is a recent short video on wound care following a battle injury. The subject of honey for wound healing has been discussed before (see post)

 

What Happens When A Roman Soldier Gets Hurt

 

 

 

A much older video on Roman battle wound care after trauma:

 

 

Description of fresco pictured above:

The fresco, discovered at Pompeii in the Casa di Sirico (VII 1, 25), depicts the healing episode from Virgil's Aeneid (Book XII, lines 398 ff. and 411 ff.). Aeneas, still in his armor and attended by the tearful young Ascanius, is treated by the healer Iapyx, who kneels before him and struggles with forceps to extract the arrowhead embedded in Aeneas's thigh.

At this moment, his mother, Aphrodite (Venus), descends in flight, bearing in her left hand a vial of the herbal remedy, gathered from the slopes of Mount Ida in Crete, that Virgil describes as the divine medicine enabling her son's miraculous recovery.

Edited April 22 by guy

[caesar novus]

On 4/19/2026 at 11:59 AM, guy said:

The subject of honey for wound healing has been discussed before

Honey's gel-like moistness may be key, like emphasized in video below. Citizen Surgeon has about a dozen videos saying don't let wounds dry and don't apply antibacterials - only petroleum jelly. Honey sentimentalists, please be aware it's spores can cause fatal infant botulism under age 1.