Summary of article: A. Susan P. Mattern, Physicians and the Roman Imperial Aristocracy: The Patronage of Therapeutics , Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 73 (1999), 1-18

In the article Physicians and the Roman Imperial Aristocracy: The Patronage of Therapeutics, <Tab/> Susuan P. Mattern describes how a physician moved up the social ladder and about the competition between physicians to gain reputation in the Roman society. This is done by reading letters from the Roman elite, the works of Galen and many other great physicians of the time. <Tab/>Mattern starts by telling the …

…of training to students to attract crowds (p. 16). Many people, like Pliny, believed that in an ideal society only aristocrats would have entourages. (P. 17) <Tab/>The Roman society for physicians was very competitive and a struggle for reputation and status. Many physicians that found cures kept them secretes in order to be more desirable to patrons (p. 17). Ultimately a physician had to be self promoting and competitive to gain any recognition.