Hippocratic medicine separates illness from the divine
- Date
- c. 440 to 420 BCE
- Category
- Science, technology & invention
- Region
- Greece (Cos and Ionia)
- Era
- Classical Antiquity
- Significance
In the later fifth century BCE, the school associated with Hippocrates of Cos produced the earliest texts of the Hippocratic Corpus, foundational works of rational medicine.
Treatises such as 'On the Sacred Disease' argued that epilepsy and other illnesses had natural causes rather than divine origins, insisting that diseases be studied through observation, careful case histories and the patient's environment and regimen. The tradition developed humoral theory, clinical prognosis and a strong professional ethic embodied in the Hippocratic Oath, which bound physicians to standards of conduct and confidentiality. By grounding medicine in empirical inquiry rather than priestly ritual or magic, the Hippocratic writers helped establish medicine as a discipline distinct from religion and philosophy. Their methods of bedside observation and emphasis on the physician's duty shaped Greek and Roman medicine through Galen and remained influential into the early modern era. The Oath, in modernised form, is still invoked in medical practice today, a measure of the tradition's enduring authority.
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Empires active in c. 440 to 420 BCE
- Achaemenid Empire550 BCE to 330 BCE
- Roman Republic509 BCE to 27 BCE
- Carthaginian Empire650 BCE to 146 BCE
- Kingdom of Kush1070 BCE to 350 CE
- Scythians800 BCE to 300 BCE
- Zhou Dynasty1046 BCE to 256 BCE
Related science, technology & invention events
- Aristotle founds the Lyceum and systematises the sciencesc. 335 BCE
- Euclid compiles the Elements at Alexandriac. 300 BCE
- China Masters Cast Iron and the Blast Furnacec. 500 BCE
- Dong Son bronze drums of Bronze Age Southeast Asiac. 500 BCE
- Construction of the Aqua Appia, Rome's first aqueduct312 BCE
- Wootz crucible steel developed in South India and Sri Lankac. 300 BCE
Essential reading
- Invention of Standardised Coinage in Lydia (the Lydian Stater)c. 630 BCE
- Han-Xiongnu Heqin Treaty Inaugurates Tribute-and-Marriage Diplomacy198 BC
- Earliest securely dated Maya/Mesoamerican Long Count inscription36 BCE (Long Count 7.16.3.2.13)
- Wang Mang nationalises land under the Xin dynastyAD 9
Further reading
The wider story
A Little History of Science
Warm, jargon-free tour of discovery from Babylonian stargazers to the genome.
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