The publication of conference papers can be fraught with problems, as this volume shows. The original organizer of the conference gave up, some contributors drifted away, one died, others were added, and a valiant editor stepped in to link together essays that differ considerably in scope and quality. The original theme seems to have been that of health, and the ancient Greek and Roman views on health, as opposed to disease, but, apart from Emma Stafford's paper on the cult of the goddess Hygieia, and Gillian Clark on Christian and pagan ascetics, this proved impossible—or a missed opportunity. Plutarch and Galen's discussion of health are briefly noted, those of Athenaeus of Attaleia and hellenistic doctors disregarded entirely. Philosophical (and later theological) discussions of the classification of “good things” are likewise omitted. Instead, we are given four useful papers on the results of archaeological and palaeopathological surveys of ancient sites from Greek prehistory to Pompeii, showing more promise of things to come than overturning standard views. Another archaeological paper, by Ralph Jackson, is the highlight of the volume. He compares the written advice on bone surgery with the evidence of instruments and skeletal evidence to show the relative effectiveness of ancient bone surgery—and its complexity and ingenuity. This is a model of solid scholarship that integrates detailed evidence into a wider picture. In a more literary fashion John Wilkins tests the advice of medical writers on diet against that of cookbooks and food writers to assess the feasibility of medical dietetics for ordinary Greeks and Romans. He argues for a general similarity between the two, and draws attention to the way ancient preferences differed from those of modern dieticians. Two papers look generally at notions of health as applied to women (Helen King) and the disabled (Nicholas Vlahogiannis), interesting topics for which the ancient evidence is relatively sparse. The late Dominic Montserrat studies the Christian healing cult of SS. Cyrus and John at Menouthis, a nice introduction to a cult less familiar than that of Cosmas and Damian. Two further papers offer musings on the use of drama in modern healing and its potential application in ancient healing cults, and on the importance of a pleasant environment in modern hospital architecture and at certain ancient shrines. The latter is more successful in avoiding special pleading. This is a difficult volume to review, for, despite the editor's valiant attempt in her introduction, neither the theme nor the individual contributions cohere easily. There is some high quality scholarship on display that was well worth publishing in some form, but there are gaps, not all the fault of the authors. But Classicists still fail to use the Arabic Galen, to their disadvantage. There is no reference to Galen's comments on the role of rhetorical performances in the Asclepius cult (On examining the physician 1,1-2) or his important exposition of the role of Hygieia in the fragments of his commentary on the Hippocratic Oath (edited by Franz Rosenthal). These include quotations from the famous paean of Ariphron, and from at least one other poem, and give a Pergamene perspective on the significance of Asclepius and his family.