What advances did the Romans make in Public Health?

Answer 1

The Romans were great believers in a healthy mind equalling a healthy body ("mens sana in corpore sano"). There was a belief that if you kept fit, you would be more able to combat an illness. Rather than spend money on a doctor, many Romans spent money on keeping fit. The Romans did believe that illnesses had a natural cause and that bad health could be caused by bad water and sewage. Hence their desire to improve the public health system in the Roman Empire so that everyone in their empire benefited. – not just the rich. Those who worked for the Romans needed good health as did their soldiers. In this sense, the Romans were the first civilisation to introduce a programme of public health for everyone regardless of wealth.
Roman cities, villas and forts were built in what were considered healthy places. The The Romans became practised at draining marshes to rid areas of malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Julius Caesar drained the Codetan Swamp and planted a forest in its place. The Romans knew not only how, but where to build.
The Romans paid especial attention to the health of their soldiers as without these soldiers, the Roman Empire could collapse. Great emphasis was placed on soldiers having access to clean water and being able to keep fit. Commanders ordered their junior officers not to set up a camp too near a swamp and the drinking of swamp water was especially discouraged. Soldiers were moved around as it was believed that if they stayed too long in one place, they would start to suffer from the illnesses that might have existed in that area.
Clean water was very important to the Romans. Cities, towns and forts were built near springs. However, as Roman cities and towns grew, they needed to bring in water from further afield. As the population grew, so did the need for clean water. Trying to shift large volumes of water underground in pipes was not possible as lead pipes would be too weak and bronze pipes would be too expensive. The Romans could not make cast iron pipes as the techniques for doing this were not known to them. If water could not be brought via pipes, the Romans decided to bring it overland in what were conduits. When the water got to the city, it was fed off into smaller bronze or ceramic pipes. To get the water to flow at an even (and slow) pace, conduits were built on a slight slope. Valleys were crossed by using aqueducts. One of the most famous of these is the Pont du Gard aqueduct at Nimes in southern France. Where possible, the Romans did take water through tunnels but the hills needed to be relatively small for this to be successful.
Rome, as the capital of the empire, had to have an impressive water supply. The supply was designed by Julius Frontinus who was appointed Water Commissioner for Rome in 97 AD. The aqueducts that fed Rome carried an estimated 1000 million litres of water a day. Personal hygiene was also a major issue in the day-to-day life of Romans. Their famous baths played an important part in this.
The baths were used by both rich and poor. Most Roman settlements contained a public bath of some sort. In Britain the most famous are at Bath (then called Aquae Sulis by the Romans). The entrance fee for the baths were extremely small – usually about a quadrans (1/16th of a penny!). This extremely low price was to ensure that no-one did not bathe because it was too expensive.
From the writings of Seneca, we know that the Romans spent large sums of money building their baths. Seneca wrote about baths with walls covered in huge mirrors and marble with water coming out of silver taps! "And I’m talking only about the common people." (Seneca) The baths of the rich included waterfalls according to Seneca. Even people who were sick were encouraged to bathe as it was felt that this would help them to regain their good health.
Roman houses and streets also had toilets. Other civilisations had also used toilets but they had been the preserve of the rich and were essentially a sign of your wealth. By 315 AD, it is said that Rome as a city had 144 public toilets which were flushed clean by running water. All forts had toilets in them. To complement these toilets, the Romans also needed a sufficiently effective drainage system. Pliny, the writer, wrote that many Romans believed that Rome’s sewers were the city’s greatest achievement. Seven rivers were made to flow through the city’s sewers and served to flush any sewage out of them. The importance of hygiene also extended as far as military hospitals which had drainage and sewage systems attached to them. Quite clearly, the Romans believed that an injured soldier would get back to health quicker recovering in a hygienic environment.

Answer 2

Guessing "what if" will never give you any idea of what would have happened IF christianity didn't explode. Maybe Mithraism would have exploded instead? or maybe the sect of Dionysus (Bacchnae)? Maybe Osiris worship would have come back? Maybe people would have went to worshipping unicorns?? WHAT IF, doesn't mean much of anything and never provides anything solid to work with. There's no way of telling if we would have advanced further or maybe we would still be int he dark ages? (Actually, during the Dark Ages, the "church" made it illegal to believe in magic - Augustine) The witch craze didn't happen till much later. The era you're talking about, the 12th century isn't the Dark Ages. And Roman, Greece and Egypt all had a lot of that covered (they were performing brain surgeries in Egypt loooong before Jesus)... During the dark ages is when it was thought that knowledge would destroy mankind. After all, it was the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge that made adam and eve fall, right? THAT is what the Dark Ages was about. That, and keeping people from wandering from the "church" by accepting other gods.

Answer 3

More lives were lost from the many years of drinking from lead
cups than any advancement to public health. Add to that the cruelty of that regime which the nazis pattered themselves after and all I see is murder, torture, and plunder. No contribution to humanity by these so called highly advanced cultures with the exception of the high ranking in their regimes and even they poisined themselves over a period of time in the Roman culture.

Answer 4

Public baths for one , sewers were there greatest contribution , piped water to the publics door, washing hands after meals was normal, shorter hair styles , generally keeping themselves clean,
something the barbarians never quit understood,

Answer 5

What have the Romans done for us? Irrigation, sanitation, law and order, aqueducts, roads, wine

Answer 6

Drainage systems - irrigation system, public pools and steam baths with gymnasiums

Answer 7

Seperately channelled washing .drinking and sewer water supplies.
Public toilets.
Public Baths.

Answer 8

thay gave us roman baths as in chester

Answer 9

They invaded and killed a lot of people, that way there's more food to go around i guess.

oh yeah, roads, baths, aqua ducts, sanitation, blah, blah....

Answer 10

Yes.