We call it experimental philology

Sir Kenneth Dover on the Frogs of Aristophanes, l. 620, which is part of a speech on ways to torture a slave for evidence admissible in court:

στρεβλῶν, ἔτι δ᾽ ἐς τὰς ῥῖνας ὄξος ἐγχέων
[or you could] stretch him, or pour vinegar into his nostrils[, or...]

ὄξος: I have been dissuaded by medical friends from experimenting with a small quantity to see how painful it is.

Kenneth Dover. Aristophanes Frogs. Oxford, 1993, 271.

That is some serious dedication to historical investigation!