Toward the middle of the seventeenth century there was discovered at Rome, not far from the Capena gate, a portrait bust in white marble of Asclepiades. It was probably executed by a Greek sculptor residing in Rome, for, if the work had been done in Greece, the face would have been represented with a beard, as are the heads of Hippocrates, Soranus and other celebrated physicians of antiquity. The absence of the beard, furthermore, shows--according to the opinion of antiquarian experts--that the bust must have been sculptured before the time of the Emperor Claudius (41–54 A. D.), as he was the first of the Caesars to wear a beard. This bust, which is a little larger than life-size, is at present--if I am rightly informed--in the Capitoline Museum at Rome. Asclepiades lived to a great age. In descending, one day, a flight of steps he fell and received injuries from which he died. CHAPTER XII THE STATE OF MEDICINE AT ROME AFTER THE DEATH OF ASCLEPIADES; THE FOUNDING OF THE SCHOOL OF THE METHODISTS In summing up the effects which were produced by the teaching and practice of Asclepiades upon the science and art of medicine, Dr. Meyer-Steineg makes the remark that the wide and ready acceptance of both depended largely upon the personal character of the man, upon the manner in which he carried out the measures which he advocated, and upon the fact that the Romans happened at that period of their history to be ready to respond favorably to such new doctrines and therapeutic methods; but that, as soon as his strong personality had ceased to exert its influence, as it did after he had passed the active period of his life, and also because Rome did not at that moment possess any physicians who were sufficiently endowed with his medical gifts and sagacity to perpetuate his art, both it and his doctrines began to lose ground. Nevertheless, as this writer states, Asclepiades had already succeeded admirably in preparing the way for a further development of the healing art, and for this valuable service full credit should be given him.