myopia was operated on some 2000 years ago?

Yes and no. During the 6th century B.C., the Indian doctor Sushruta described a cataract surgery technique that involved pushing the crystalline lens back into the vitreous cavity. The patients who benefited most from this type of surgery were those with pathological myopia as they achieved better vision than patients not affected by myopia, both in terms of shortsightedness and long-sightedness. The best explanation is that the optical system of a myopic patient has more dioptres than are needed (and therefore corrective minus lenses are used as dioptres are subtracted from the total); patients with pathological myopia have many more dioptres and on removing the crystalline lens (which has 18-20 dioptres) a strength that is nearer to normal is achieved.