According to historical records, Herod sought many remedies for his excruciating ailment, from soaking in warm baths at Callirrhoe to sitting in a tub of hot oil.
"If we take some time to understand the history of medicine, we learn humility," said Philip Mackowiak of the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the U.S. Veterans Administration's Maryland Health Care System. "We think the medicine we are practicing today is the [best] medicine and that future generations will marvel at our intelligence. History teaches you that this just isn't so. What we recommend to patients today might be viewed as preposterous" by future generations.
At the conference, Herod the Great was "interviewed" in the persona of Herod scholar Peter Richardson of the University of Toronto, who donned a gold and emerald green gown and a jeweled crown for the occasion.
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