Selling Pharmaka, Buying Health in Ancient Greece and Rome

This book examines Greek and Roman pharmacology in its mercantile dimensions, studying the people who were involved in the trade, the places where they worked, and the consumers whom they tried to attract through promises of health.
In the ancient Mediterranean, selling pharmacological substances and preparations meant big business. Selling Pharmaka, Buying Health in Ancient Greece and Rome draws upon a wealth of ancient medical literature and artefacts to reconstruct this ancient pharmacological trade, focusing on the first two and a half centuries of the Common Era but often touching upon other periods. It discusses the strategies that actors in the trade deployed to advertise their goods, the accusations of fraud and mercantilism that were levelled against them, and the varied responses of consumers to these tactics.
Blending approaches from medical and socio-economic history, this book will appeal to researchers interested in social approaches to ancient pharmacology. Written with a reader without classical languages in mind, it will also interest historians of medicine working on periods beyond antiquity.

Laurence Totelin is Professor of Ancient History at Cardiff University, where she carries out research on Greek and Roman pharmacy, botany, and gynaecology. Her key publications include Ancient Botany, with Gavin Hardy (2016) and A Cultural History of Medicine in Antiquity (2020).