How Is Being the Editor-in-Chief of a Medical Journal like Organizing Games in the Colosseum of Ancient Rome?
A recent article in Smithsonian magazine described the infrastructure and operation of the Colosseum in ancient Rome, as well as the nature of the entertainment furnished in the arena.(1) I have referred to this monthly magazine in previous editorials because it regularly publishes a number of fascinating pieces. This month, I learned something particularly interesting: The Latin title of the person who sponsored the Roman games translates into “the editor.” The editor of the games underwrote the performances financially and usually dictated the types of entertainment displayed. It is common knowledge that many of these spectacles involved bloody events, including battles with wild animals, skirmishes between gladiators, and executions.
I felt a moment of personal irony when comparing my own role as the editor of The American Journal of Medicine (AJM) with that of the ancient Roman editors of the Colosseum. I do not sponsor the journal financially, nor are there bloody events contained within each issue. However, some might argue that a number of our pathologic and dermatologic images verge on gory! Having given some thought to other differences between my own job and that of my Roman predecessors, I have listed 11 tasks performed by editors of medical journals. I suspect that at least some of them also were undertaken by the editors responsible for events in the Colosseum.
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— Joseph S. Alpert, MD, editor-in-chief, The American Journal of Medicine
This article originally appeared in the June 2011 issue of The American Journal of Medicine.
