Calendar
seminar: Dr Ido Israelowich (Tel Aviv) Forensic Medicine in the Roman World
Location: R0.14 Ramphal building, University of Warwick
A joint event with the Classics and Ancient History Dept.
Presentation, refreshments and informal discussion. All are welcome.
ABSTRACT
Courts in the Roman world relied on forensic medicine. For example, public physicians were requested to file official reports to the courts of the strategos in Roman Egypt and midwives assisted the paterfamilias to decide which child to rear and which to expose. In this talk I will consider the history of forensic medicine during the High Roman Empire and its implications on the Roman law of evidence. I will look at (i) instances in which physicians acted as figures of authority in the Roman courts, such as cases of suspicious violence or disputed paternity or pregnancy; (ii) occurrences in which physicians themselves proclaimed their prowess but were not in demand by the courts, such as cases that required a diagnosis of madness; and (iii) the bearing these cases had on the Roman Evidence Law and Law of Procedure.