M. FAB. QUINTILIANUS

Declamation 268.

The following text is a quotation from the Roman rhetorician Quintilian regarding the origins of the medical arts.

We accept that the gods were the authors of medicine before all else: either (as I believe most strongly) so that this infirmity of humans might have some aids and consolations: or because our ancestors attributed so much to this art that they could hardly believe it could have been discovered by human talents: or because medicine itself is sacred by its own nature.