In Classical antiquity, anaesthetics were described by:
* Pedanius Dioscorides (De Materia Medica), a Greek physician living in Rome during the first century A.D., who is recorded as the first person to make explicit reference to the administration of mandrake-induced anesthesia to facilitate a surgical intervention.
* Galen
* Hippocrates
* Theophrastus (Historia Plantarum)