Soranus was one of the most learned and lucid medical qriters of antiquity. Among his admirers was St. Augustine, who called him "pre-eminent author of medicine." He was a leading medical figure of the early second century A.D., and of his writings preserved in Greek the Gynecology is the most important and most revealing of his thought. Including a section on infant care, Soranus' Gynecology represents ancient gynecological and obstetrical practice at its height. Many of its teachings were to remain part of medical practive as late as the sixteenth century.

Soranus is regarded as the outstanding representative of a school of ancient medicine knoen as the "methodist" sect, which rivaled the more ancient "dogmatic" and "empirical" sects. The methodists rejected both etiological research and mere experience, concentrating instead on a study of the phenomena of diseases themselves. Long out of print, this first English translation of the authoritative Greek text of the Gynecology is now available in a paperback edition. An introduction and notes provide insight into the work's historical and scientific background.