The mosaics of San Vitale in Ravenna (547 AD) show a very interesting case of possible thyroid disease: goiter. While the empress Theodora neck is very thin and stretched, you may notice swelling in the neck of young women in the procession, to the left of the Empress.
Some authors have suggested a goiter from iodine deficiency as the water supply to Constantinople, during the reign of Justinian, was entered through the famous underground cisterns where rainwater was collected.
Hippocrates (fifth century BC) had attributed the swelling in the neck, use of rainwater that contain exactly a very low rate of iodine.
Galen of Pergamum (129-200) spoke of "loose meat in the neck." Aetius of Amida, personal physician of Emperor Justinian, in his writings called "bronchocele the chronic swelling of the lymph glands of the larynx"
Reference: the mosaics of San Vitale, Ravenna (547 AD)
(Compare the neck of the Empress and one of the maids, in particular the first three right)
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