of alexandria alone dropped from 500,000 to 190,000 during the plague. morbus gallicus morbus gallicus (gallic disease), better known in modern times as syphilis, or the "french disease" was not prominent in ancient europe but with recent bone studies, it has been found that a type of european treponematosis bacterium may have even affected children. however, according to an article published by kristin harper in 2008, ancient european civilizations may have had a related form of the bacterium but not venereal syphilis itself, which may have had its origin in the pre-columbian americas. the term ‘syphilis" was coined later on by a 15th-century italian poet girolamo fracastoro, who wrote an epic poem of a boy named syphilus who insulted apollo, and was in turn punished with the disease. during the medieval and renaissance periods the likely mutated forms of the treponematoses resulted in epidemics. malaria the earliest known case of malaria is from roman dna dated to 450 ad. an excavation of a village shows signs of a serious malaria problem, with bone tests and traces of honeysuckle, a plant used to treat fevers. also noted is that the area was a "zone of pestilence". deforestation and sanitation issues were the main causes of malaria. mentagra mentagra, notably thought by the imperial romans to be spread by kissing, was a skin disease most commonly starting in the chin and moving on to the entire face and sometimes other body parts. the aesthetic factor was very unappealing, while the disease was hardly adverse to health at all. even though it was not dangerous, romans ironically went as far as scar-inducing cauterizations to rid them of the abhorrent disease. respiratory diseases respiratory diseases, most prominently anthracosis, were common due to pollution in roman homes according to professor luigi capasso. carbon was constantly produced with their lamps, cooking, and fireplaces. the carbon produced lesions on their lungs, apparent in bone studies (made possible by the well-preserved bodies stored under the remnants of a volcanic eruption of vesuvius) and even a study on a roman mummy. relevant study an extensive study done by mario novak and mario slaus found many skeletal remains available for examination in one specific colony in ancient rome, colonia iulia iader also known as zadar. with tests it was found that the mean age of death for men was 37.4 years (with a standard deviation of 9.43 years), and for women was 38.4 years (with a standard deviation of 9.29 years). while this is only a sample representation of our study population, it could give reasonable insights to the whole of rome. in the remains, several indicators of nutritional stress were found widespread among certain age groups. with the rates of these nutritional problems, it was even found that romans favored male children in things like breastfeeding, leaving the females with higher rates of malnutrition. periostitis was also found in many samples, with a frequency indicating overcrowding and overall poor quality of life. treatment rome had a few prominent physicians in its imperial era who came up with treatment for various diseases, and were generally the only source of medicinal information. although there was a large amount of information known about human anatomy, many of the cures and medicines were extremely ineffective. doctors the highly experienced medical personnel were focused on the military, which was often the most vulnerable group to any given disease. dioscorides served under emperor nero, experimenting with surgical techniques and medicinal herbs. pliny the elder also had a strong focus on botany, well known for his herbal knowledge. each specialist had different methods and the ways of treating diseases was very varied, causing most treatments to be extremely useless due to the lack of consistency. galen galen, perhaps the most prominent roman physician, studied anatomy as well as herbal remedies. galen's contributions to medicine mainly consisted of his detailed book series that aided in future doctors' studies of practical medicine. as far as his contribution to medicine in the ancient world, he expanded the knowledge of medicine through using similar methods to hippocrates, which strayed away from the mythical methods of medicine that proved to be ineffective. these methods that he practiced included studying anatomy and using many different procedures in an attempt to find reliable ways of treatment. herbal medicines natural medicine was of great importance, seeing as they could not synthetically manufacture anything. many traces of herbs at ancient roman army bases have been found, as well as medicated wine. an example of these kind of medicine is green jasper, which was used to treat stomach problems. army doctors had knowledge of the herbs, and perhaps even grew their own in their respective gardens. the romans were not correct with all of the herbs uses, but a placebo effect possibly still made some of the herbs useful. pills, also referred to as pastille, consisted of herbs and plants along with a metallic ingredient. surgery surgery was not a very common practice during the period of imperial rome and was only used as a last option and if absolutely needed. the reason for this was due to the risk of the patient being in more pain post surgery than they were prior to it. even when performed, it was confined to only surface level procedures, using flax, linen threads, or metal pins. regarding internal damage that can be caused by diseases, many doctors did not attempt to fix this due to the fear of their medical reputation being damaged if unsuccessful, which was likely to occur due to the lack of knowledge regarding these procedures.