Marble relief of Jason the physician and patient

Roman, 2nd century AD
From Athens, Greece

Greek medicine continued to thrive under the Roman Empire. This relief shows Jason seated on a cushioned stool, bearded and draped in the manner of a philosopher. He examines a patient, who appears to be a child, prematurely aged and with an unnaturally enlarged stomach. To the right is an egg-shaped object resembling a cupping vessel, which when heated could be used to draw blood or pus from a wound. If it is intended to be a cupping-vessel, then the scale exaggerates the actual size.

In translation the inscription reads: 'Jason, also known as Decimus, of the Archarnian deme [an administrative division of Athens] a physician . . .'. It then goes on to mention other members of his family.

The top of the relief is worked into a series of mock architectural antefixes (roof decorations).

I. Jenkins, Greek and Roman life (London, The British Museum Press, 1986)