Physicians, patients and illnesses in epigrammatic literature: Martial and Bocage

Abstract

                In Greco-Latin satirical epigrammatic literature, the charlatan doctor and his victims is one of the most popular topics. In particular, Martial's epigrams are full of doctors who kill with their mere presence, or who, as gladiators, do the same as when they were doctors. Eighteenth-century Arcadism, in its search for a new classicism, recovers not only the classic epigram in its brief, concise, and satirical form, but also its themes, specifically including that of doctors and their patients. In our work we will show how the rereading of this topic of classical epigrammatic literature is carried out in the Portuguese authors of the eighteenth century, especially in Bocage.