Onasilio Medical Centre

A doctor mentioned by name was Onasilaos(also known as Onasilos). He was a military doctor living in Idalhion (present day Dali village). Together with his two brothers, probably male nurses, treated the injured in a battle against the Midi(Persian Tribe). The information we have are from The Bronze Tablet of Idalion (480–470 BC, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris),which is an agreement written in the Cypriot Syllabus, between the king of Idalion Stasikypros on the one hand, and the doctor Onasilaos and his brothers on the other. According to the tablet, Onasilaos and his brothers agreed to look after free of charge, the wounded during the siege of Idalion by the Persians and the Kitians. He didn't accept money for his services, so the king after their victory he decided to reward him with some land in Alambra area. We also have some infrommation after the half-mythical Machaon. The earliest
glimpse we get of an Army Surgeon is in the wars between Greece and Persia, about 450 B.C., when
a doctor named Onasilaos, with his brothers,
volunteered to attend to the Greek wounded. He must have had considerable diffi-
culties to contend with. He had no bearers for
the wounded ; where the fighting men were
willing or able, they carried the wounded on their
backs from the battle-field to a place of safety,
probably to some large house in the neighbour-
hood. While the battle raged we can imagine
Onasilaos going round to such of these as suited his
purpose and making arrangements for the recep-
tion and treatment of his wounded. These must
lie where they had fallen until night fell and the
battle was over, and the victors had time and
energy to attend to them. To carry a heavy
helpless man for any considerable distance after
they had been engaged in strenuous combat for
many hours must have been a task not lightly under-
taken by the warriors except for their particular
friends. We can imagine Onasilos and his brothers struggling to treat the most promising cases on the
field, and to sort out those whose recovery seemed
hopeful for transport to the hospitable houses
awaiting them. Slaves and country people may
have been pressed into this service, as they were
at a later date. But it requires little imagination
to picture the tortures of the wounded man thus
jogging along over rough ground on the back of
an untrained bearer. No serious injury would be
likely to survive it but Onasilaos saved many lifes that days. The enemy's wounded, of course, would only
need a grave. But it is noteworthy that later,
when the Athenians were fighting Sparta, the
people of Lacedaemon took the wounded into
their houses, more or less irrespective of Clan or
City, which was an advance on ancient practice. Something taught with may years ago by Onasilaos. Onasilaos, and this public recognition of the
duty of aid to the wounded, coincided with what
is for us the crucial point of ancient medicine!