ancient Greece

The article’s focus is on the dearth of research concerning the virtues of ancient Greek physicians. It is customary for researchers to ascertain the moral and ethical qualities of a physician by referring to the Hippocratic corpus. Therefore, the opinion expressed is that of a medical practitioner, as determined by the relevant physician. In contrast to medical literature, honorary decrees illustrate the socially approved qualities of physicians from the perspective of the general citizenry, rather than that of professional colleagues. The virtues enumerated in the honorary decrees bestowed upon physicians align with the principles of an ideal citizen, embodying tangible, rather than abstract, philosophical or purely professional attributes of a physician. The present paper explores the virtues of physicians in a context of the common civic virtues attributed to the euergetes of the Hellenistic era. As demonstrated in the paper, physicians were attributed the same virtues as philanthropists and politicians. Concurrently, the decrees exhibit a paucity of special professional virtues; the prevailing emphasis is on “medical art” as it is the primary virtue of a physician. Consequently, the honorary decrees illustrate the physician as a constituent of the polis collective, and the most accomplished physicians are distinguished by the same qualities as political leaders — kalokagathia, zeal, and ambition.