Roman stretcher (Medical)

[Nathan Ross]

Are there any evidence of stretchers?

Interesting question. We might assume there was something of the sort, but I can't find anything concrete about them. Are there any depictions on imperial monuments?

There are some vague references online to leticarii as 'stretcher bearers' - but the word means 'litter/bed carrier'. There are also paralabani or paralaboi, but they seem to have been employed in church-based hospitals. The Strategikon says that deputati were ordered to find and transport injured men, but doesn't say anything about how they did it.

Without further evidence, we could either assume that something like a modern stretcher existed, or that wounded men were carried on or in something else (litters? blankets? their shields?) or that the army slaves or deputati just carried them bodily.


I do recall a reference somewhere to Roman soldiers carrying an injured man on a door - it also turns up in a novel, but I think it's based on something genuine. It sounds like an improvised expedient though!