Fixing Ethical Rules for Midwives in the Early Roman Imperial Period: Soranus, ‘Gynaecia’ I 3–4

Abstract

The first two chapters of Soranus of Ephesus’ ‘Gynaecia’ (first c. AD) include ethical rules for the ideal midwife. These rules show striking analogies with the content of the deontological works of the Corpus Hippocraticum (‘Iusiurandum’, ‘Lex’, ‘Testamentum’, ‘De decenti habitu’, ‘Praecepta’ and ‘De medico’). In this paper, I shall for the first time detect, explore and comment on these analogies. From the detailed examination of the texts, it emerges that at the beginning of the Roman Imperial Period a common ethical model for both the ideal physician and the ideal midwife was probably circulating. This ethical model contributed to fix the ethical rules for physicians and midwives transmitted in the writing by Soranus as well as in the texts attributed to Hippocrates.