Weilbach, Christoph
Wie Laien und Fachleute über Medizinisches sprechen: Ein Vergleich medizinischer Äußerungen in Briefen und Fachtexten aus der Zeit der späten römischen Republik bis in die frühe Kaiserzeit
The study investigates the question of whether and to what extent linguistic characteristics of specialist medical communication can be found in the exchange on the topics of health and disease between non-specialists in the surviving
ancient Roman literature.
To answer this question, medical utterances in the letters of Cicero (epistulae ad Atticum, ad familiares, ad Quintum fratrem, ad Brutum), Seneca the Younger (epistulae morales ad Lucilium) and Pliny the Younger (epistulae), are contrasted with
comparable utterances in the medical writings of Celsus (de medicina), Pliny the Elder ("medical" books 20-32 of his naturalis historia) and Scribonius Largus (compositiones).
