Disease in Imperial Rome

Imperial Rome is often thought of as one of the great civilizations and empires of all time. While this is not necessarily a false view, the prevalence of disease is oft overlooked. As said by Roman Physician Galen, "This populous city, where daily ten thousand people can be discovered suffering from jaundice, and ten thousand from dropsy." While there are few documents remaining from the time period documenting demographics and other factors in disease, bone studies help to indicate various diseases, and speculations can be made on why the diseases we know existed were rampant through the empire.