The place of doctors in the service market system of Byzantium of the IV–IX centuries.

Abstract

The article analyzes the position and status of medical and pharmaceutical staff in the Byzantine labor market and services. Their place in society and in the professional sphere is considered equal in essence and quality to that of the craftsmen — vanavsos. It is emphasized that in most cases they did not belong to slaves, as it was in the ancient Roman society, but to free, wealthy strata of the population, to those who were classified as euporus, endesters with an annual income of at least 25–50 solidi, and their salary allowed them to provide themselves with everything they needed. Paid visit to the doctor, iatraros was considered as a daily routine. Sometimes it took place at public cost, mainly in the capital of the Roman Empire in the early Byzantine period, but also among monks. Getting into the ranks of medical professionals was limited only by the financial solvency of those who studied this craft, unless, of course, it was inherited from father to son. In the Byzantine Empire in the IV–IX centuries, medical services were provided both in private, paid, and at the state, public levels.