An oculist’s stamp

“ALL that summer Marcus and Esca wandered through the abandoned Province of Valentia, crossing and re-crossing from coast to coast, and making steadily northward. They ran into no serious trouble, for Rufrius Galarius had spoken the truth when he said that the oculist’s stamp was a talisman that would carry its owner anywhere. In Valentia, as in the rest of Britain, there were many people with marsh ophthalmia, and Marcus did his best for those who came to him for help, with the salves which the old field surgeon had shown him how to use.

When Rosemary Sutcliff wrote “The Eagle of the Ninth”, her hero Marcus needed a disguise as he travelled through Roman Britain and into Scotland. He chose to be a traveling eye-doctor, an oculist. As such, he equipped himself with a variety of salves, and carried an oculist’s stamp like this:

Oculist’s stamp, National Museum of Scotland.

The writing is backwards so that when it is pressed into a cake or stick of salve, it reads “Lucius Valerius Latinus’ gentle crocus salve for eye disorders”. On the opposite side the wording is slightly different, for a different salve: “ Lucius Valerius Latinus’ sweet-smelling salve for scars and granulations”.

Lucius Valerius Latinus may have had other stamps of course, but other oculists used every face of their stamp. This stamp comes from the Corinium Museum in Cirencester, and the “salve” displayed above it shows the impression left by the stamp.

The oculist here is called Atticus and he offers salves made from frankincense, poppy and quince as well as the gentle salve he advertises above. Once the patient has been sold a stick of salve, he or she cuts off a small amount and grinds it up, mixing it with something liquid such as egg before applying it to the affected area. This is one experiment I am not willing to try out.

If you are a fan, you might be interested to know that BBC radio 4 is repeating its dramatization of “Eagle of the Ninth”. I hope you can find a way to listen!