Health and wellbeing in the ancient world
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3.3 Treating the injured soldier

Composite image made up of three images: the decoration on an Attic cup, depicting Achilles bandaging Patroclus’ wounded arm; and two photographs of injured soldiers during World War 1.
Figure 17 Soldiers being treated for the injuries
Composite image made up of three images: the decoration on an Attic cup, depicting Achilles bandaging Patroclus’ wounded arm; and two photographs of injured soldiers during World War 1.
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In one of the images in Figure 17, you can see the Greek hero, Achilles, bandaging the injured Patroclus on the battlefield. Although this painting is based on the Iliad, there is some evidence in ancient histories that soldiers helped treat each other, as discussed earlier in the section on Training the Roman army.

Activity 4

Compare what you have learned from Video 5 with what you see in the images which make up Figure 17, and perhaps what you know through former history classes or films: for example, about the treatment of soldiers on campaign during the First and Second World Wars. Do you think there are many differences in treatment and places of treatment between the different periods in time?

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