Healing Bodies: the ancient origins of massages and Roman practices
The practice of body manipulation with therapeutic aims has been used in the Western world since
the origins of Hippocratic medicine. By retracing the therapeutic use of massage as a therapeutic, preventive
and educational practice, the authors attempt to highlight the concepts, techniques and methods of massage
and the manipulation of the body in order to offer a valuable and useful historical reconstruction concerning
ancient medicine. The study on the relationship between culture, diseases and medicine constitute a significant
part of the historical medical research carried out within the Research Project of National Interest PRIN
entitled ‘Disease, health and lifestyles in Rome: from the Empire to the early Middle Ages’ funded by the
Ministry of Education, MIUR University Research in 2015