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Marcus Varro: A Man Ahead of his TIme

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Marcus Varro is a forgotten man. He wrote 620 books. He was a friend and ally of Pompey. He was later pardoned (twice) and was supported by Caesar. He later befriended Octavian (despite Marc Antony's hatred) and became a respected writer with Octavian's patronage and protection.

He was certainly a man ahead of his time:


"My eightieth year admonishes me to gather up my pack before I set forth from life.Therefore I shall write for you three handbooks to which you may turn whenever you wish to know, in a given case, how you ought to proceed in farming."

"Precautions must also be taken in the neighborhood of swamps because certain minute creatures grow there which cannot be seen by the eyes, which float in the air and enter the body through the mouth and nose and there cause serious diseases."

Marcus Terentius Varro 36 BCE Res Rusticae (On Farming)



Unfortunately, this brilliant concept that explained many illnesses was lost in history. It was obscured by Galen's humoral theory that dominated Western medicine and remained unchallenged dogma for more than 1300 years.


guy also known as gaius

Edited by guy

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Marcus Varro is a forgotten man. He wrote 620 books. He was a friend and ally of Pompey. He was later pardoned (twice) and supported by Caesar. He later befriended Octavian (despite Marc Antony

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Varro's description of bacteria was certainly prescient. But how did he know it?

 

Unfortunately, very few people shared Varro's view. Here is Ammianus Marcellinus's view of illness:

 

"But in the city, where the number of the corpses which lay scattered over the streets was too great for any one to perform the funeral rites over them, a pestilence was soon added to the other calamities of the citizens; the carcases becoming full of worms and corruption, from the evaporation caused by the heat, and the various diseases of the people; and here I will briefly explain whence diseases of this kind arise.

 

2. Both philosophers and skilful physicians agree that excess of cold, or of heat, or of moisture, or of drought, all cause pestilences; on which account those who dwell in marshy or wet districts are subject to coughs and complaints in the eyes, and other similar maladies: on the other hand, those who dwell in hot climates are liable to fevers and inflammations. But since fire is the most powerful of all elements, so drought is the quickest at killing.

 

5. Others maintain that the air and the water, becoming tainted by the smell of corpses, and similar things, takes away the healthiness of a place, or at all events that the sudden change of temperature brings forth slighter sicknesses.

 

6. Some again affirm that the air becomes heavier by emanations from the earth, and kills some individuals by checking the perspiration of the body, for which reason we learn from Homer, that, besides men, the other living creatures also died; and we know by many instances, that in such plagues this does occur.

 

7. Now the first species of pestilence is called pandemic; this causes those who live in dry places to be attacked by frequent heats. The second is called epidemic, which gets gradually more violent, dims the sight of the eyes, and awakens dangerous humours. The third is [plague], which is also temporary, but still often kills with great rapidity.

 

8. We were attacked by this deadly pestilence from the excessive heat, which our numbers aggravated, though but few died: and at last, on the night after the tenth day from the first attack, the heavy and dense air was softened by a little rain, and the health of the garrison was restored and preserved.

 

guy also known as gaius

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