Archagathus (Ancient Greek: Ἀρχάγαθος), a Peloponnesian, the son of Lysanias, who settled at Rome as a practitioner of medicine around 219 BCE, and, according to Lucius Cassius Hemina,^[1] was the first person who made it a distinct profession in that city. He was received in the first instance with great respect, he was accorded the Jus Quiritium – that is, the privileges of a free native of Rome – and a shop was bought for him at the public expense; but his practice was observed to be so severe, that he soon excited the dislike of the people at large and produced a complete disgust to the profession generally. In return for the favors he received from the Romans, he purged, bled, hacked, and cauterized them to such a degree, that at length they refused to tolerate such rough treatment any longer, and the commonwealth was purged of Archagathus himself.^[2][3]

The practice of Archagathus seems to have been almost exclusively surgical, and to have consisted, in a great measure, in the use of the knife and powerful caustic applications.^[4]