В Древнем Риме эпилептиков лечили кровью убитых гладиаторов

In Ancient Rome, those with the disease we know as epilepsy could be taken to the arena and provided with a cure that would cause even today's readers to stop and think twice before trying it. According to accounts given by Romans of that time, many of these individuals drank the warm blood of fallen gladiators. The Romans believed that when someone was killed violently, that act created a powerful force to eliminate physical illness or disease. Pliny the Elder's writings are among the most well-known of this practice; indeed, Pliny stated that gladiator blood was “like the draught of life.” However we know that Pliny did not recommend gladiator blood as a cure for epilepsy; instead he wrote about his disgust for this practice. The same passage in which Pliny discussed gladiator blood included comments on why this treatment is terrible, the need for treatment of epilepsy, and the impact that the gladiatorial blood had on people's lives. This is not a story of Roman physicians rediscovering a forgotten treatment method. This is an example of our most primal feelings of fear, hope, and the wondrous display of public spectacles; as well as the twisted reasoning associated with treating people of the time for serious illness. When a person had been diagnosed with a serious illness and didn't have any other option to cure the illness, the gladiatorial arena represented an option for them to attempt to heal and/or treat the illness. GladiATOR blood, at that time, was the remedy that belonged to a world where physical substance, spiritual force, and healing could be impossible to separate. The Illness That Had No Name Like Ours Modern medicine understands epilepsy as a group of neurological disorders that can cause seizures.  However, within the Roman Empire there was no such defined classification; epilepsy was viewed as a series of alarming episodes of collapsing, convulsing, unconsciousness, and behaviour changes. To the Romans, these were explained through a series of different justifications including one’s physical state of imbalance, the wrath of the gods, fate or a combination. Epilepsy has had more than one name throughout history, one of which links it to the disruption of public policies due to seizures taking place during governmental sessions. Another way to describe epilepsy in the early Roman Empire was as "sacred disease." This distinction between medical terminology and religious symbolism illustrates a common issue with interpreting medical conditions thtough a historical context: epilepsy was not just a medical condition but could be interpreted as a sign, a threat, or an account of mystical or other-worldly forces influencing behaviour and physiological conditions.