ABSTRACT

Health and conditions of nutrition and safety were a constant concern for the ancient world. Diodorus Siculus (5.40.2) says that the Etruscans “perfected writing and the study of nature (φυσιολογία) and theology,” but if Etruria had an equivalent of Hippokrates (and there is no evidence for this), his or her works have not survived. Much of our information derives from religious sources such as votive cult or divination. Varro (De re rustica 1.2.27) recorded a charm for foot pain that he attributed to Etruscan wisdom, perhaps to one “Tarquenna,” a form of incantation to be delivered while spitting on the ground: ego tui memini, medere meis pedibus, terra pestem teneto, salus hic maneto in meis pedibus (“I am mindful of you, cure my feet, let earth hold the affliction, let health stay here in my feet”). Many excavations and museum finds, textual analyses and medical studies have appeared since Mario Tabanelli published La Medicina nel mondo degli Etruschi in 19 63, but we have not yet acquired sufficient data to comprehensively assess the state of medical practice or the average health of the Etruscans. Life in Etruria can be rated according to environmental conditions of food supply, climate, pollution and occupational hazards, but evidence for actual treatment, training in or understanding of health conditions remains scarce.