GREECE, ROME & THE ARAB WORLD

In the West, massage has often been used in tandem with exercise, quite commonly as a branch of medicine, and has therefore been influenced by developments in the knowledge of anatomy and physiology. In the fifth century BC, Hippocrates, the "father of medicine" preached the benefits of massage saying "the physician must be experienced in many things, but assuredly in rubbing". By then Gymnasia were established in many Greek cities, and the anointing of athletes with oils and powders was a common practice in the popular Games. In earlier times, Homer described in "The Odyssey" (about 1000 BC) how the war weary heroes were rested and replenished by the use of massage.

Thus two uses of massage – as a method of relieving stiffness, soreness and tightness in muscles, and as a treatment for particular problems – were well established in classical Greece, and were further developed in Roman times. The Roman physician Celsus (25 BC – 50 AD) wrote that "chronic pains in the head are relieved by rubbing the head itself" and that "a paralysed limb is strengthened by rubbing". Julius Caesar was "pinched" daily to relieve neuralgia. Galen, a Roman physician (AD 131-20l) promoted its use in the preparation of gladiators for combat and in the treatment of injuries.

Following the end of the Roman Empire in the fifth century, the Arabs sustained and continued to develop the knowledge and teachings of the classical world. Avicenna, a tenth century philosopher and physician, wrote that the object of massage was "to disperse the effete matters found in the muscles and not expelled by exercise". The Arabs also carried on the tradition of massage being done at the Public Baths – which continues to the present day in the "Hammams", the traditional Baths which operate in North Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean (e.g. Turkish Baths) and across into Pakistan and neighbouring parts of Asia.