Since the Roman Empire spans hundreds of years, I want to know specifically around the time of the Pax Romana. I have a cold right now and it got me wondering how ancient societies dealt with it. If anyone could provide additional info about other cultures' relationship with the disease, I'd greatly appreciate it.
Of Pliny the Elder's Natural History, W.H.S. Jones writes, in his introduction ('Diseases of Italy, and their Names in Pliny') to Vol. 6 of the Harvard/Heinemann edition of 1949-54 that 'It is curious that Pliny makes so few references to the common cold. Gravedo [...] occurs 4 times, and destillatio 17 times.' A quick scan through the text turns up the following:
Book XXVIII
Chapter XV: Sneezing caused by a feather relieves a cold in the head, and sneezing and hiccough are relieved by touching with the lips, it is said, the nostrils of a mule. For sneezing Varro advises us to scratch the palm of each hand with the other; most people advise us to transfer the ring from the left hand to the longest finger of the right, and to dip the hands into very hot water. Theophrastus says that old people sneeze with greater difficulty than others.
Chapter XXXIII: Drinking milk is generally bad for headache, complaints of the liver, spleen and sinews, for fevers, for giddiness except as a purge, and for a heavy cold, cough, and ophthalmia.
Book XXX
Chapter XI: I find that a heavy cold clears up if the sufferer kisses a mule's muzzle.
Chapter XV: The skin of the crop of poultry, sprinkled into the drink when dried, or roasted if fresh, relieves chest catarrhs and moist coughs. A cough is relieved by pounded raw snails swallowed in three cyathi of tepid water, running colds also by a piece of dog skin put round any finger.