On the effectiveness of anti-sarcoptosis treatments contained in Publius Vergilius Maro’s Georgics

Abstract

 The Georgics by Publius Vergilius Maro (Virgil) are a philosophical and didactic poem that praises hard work on the land and can be treated as a specific type of an agronomic guide. Its author also presents ways to combat sarcoptosis, a disease that causes large losses in sheep farming, which do not diff er from those proposed by the authors of agronomic or veterinary texts. The belief in their effectiveness is confirmed by the fact that Columella and Palladius, among others, quote parts of the Georgics. Moreover, modern research has confirmed the role of hygiene in combating scabies.  The medicine proposed by Virgil can alleviate the symptoms of the disease and, in lighter cases, lead to complete recovery of the animals, albeit severe infections require the use of avermectic or milbemycin agents not available in antiquity.