Eva Kristina Wahlberg Sandberg

About me

The mortality and morbidity of children in ancient Rome are considered as extremely high by today’s scholars. How did the Roman society handle such a precarious situation? I have chosen to study one possible way for management, which is the medical intervention. Galen (129 - 199/207 AD) a physician was born in Pergamum and lived the most of his writing life in Rome, was well educated and trained in medicine and philosophy. He has written a considerable number of texts on medicine, where children were seen as one of several groups to be examined and treated. Galen’s view on health and unhealth in childhood is my research area. I study how the diseases in children were perceived by Galen and his contemporaries. The study is primarily based on Galen’s texts, but other ancient Greek and Roman medical authors will also be analyzed and compared to Galen.

As a pediatrician and school physician, I have an interest in the comparison of pediatrics of different times and the dynamic meeting of modern and ancient medicine. How can the medical cultures of such a great time difference possibly have anything to say to each other? Can the ancient Greek and Roman medicine help the practitioner of today with hers/his meeting with patients, disease and society's demands on the medical professions?

Supervisor: prof Arja Karivieri, Stockholms universitet
Co-supervisor​: prof Véronique Boudon-Millot, Sorbonne, Paris