Fatal wounding of the Byzantine emperor Julian the Apostate (361-363 AD): Approach to the contribution of ancient surgery

Byzantine surgery flourished from the early stages of the Byzantine empire (324-1453 A.D.). The first great Byzantine physicians, among the most emine nt being Oribasius from Pergamun (fourth century), not only compiled anthol ogies of the works of ancient Greek, Alexandrian, and Roman physicians but added their own personal practical experience and observations. The circums tances surrounding, and the treatment of, the fatal abdominal wounding of o ne of the most renowned emperors of Byzantium, Julian the Apostate (361-363 A.D.), is examined based on historical accounts unknown in the broader med ical bibliography, namely, the histories and chronicles of Byzantine writer s. From this analysis it can be concluded that the emperor's physician, Ori basius, in all probability, applied knowledge of ancient Greek and Roman su rgery to save his famous patient. The techniques of "gastrorrhaphy" and pha rmaceutical confrontation of the wound in that era, adopted later by the su rgeons of the Medieval West, seem to constitute noteworthy roots of modern surgery.