Galen

The second-century Greek physician Galen, the most famous doctor in antiquity after Hippocrates, is a central figure in Western medicine. A talented doctor, surgeon, writer, philosopher, teacher, pharmacologist, and inventor, Galen attended the court of Marcus Aurelius, living through outbreaks of plague (likely smallpox) that devastated the Roman Empire. He also served as a physician for professional gladiators, boasting that...

Galen of Pergamum (129–?199/216), physician to the court of the emperor Marcus Aurelius, was a philosopher, scientist, medical historian, theoretician, and practitioner. He wrote forcefully and prolifically on an astonishing range of subjects, and his impact on later eras rivalled that of Aristotle. Galen synthesized the entirety of Greek medicine as a basis for his own doctrines and practice, which...

Galen of Pergamum (129–?199/216), physician to the court of the emperor Marcus Aurelius, was a philosopher, scientist, and medical historian, a theoretician and practitioner, who wrote forcefully and prolifically on an astonishing range of subjects and whose impact on later eras rivalled that of Aristotle. Galen synthesised the entirety of Greek medicine as a basis for his own doctrines and...

Galen of Pergamum (129–?199/216), physician to the court of the emperor Marcus Aurelius, was a philosopher, scientist, and medical historian, a theoretician and practitioner, who wrote forcefully and prolifically on an astonishing range of subjects and whose impact on later eras rivalled that of Aristotle. Galen synthesised the entirety of Greek medicine as a basis for his own doctrines and...

Galen of Pergamum (129–?199/216), physician to the court of the emperor Marcus Aurelius, was a philosopher, scientist, and medical historian. He was both a theoretician and practitioner, who wrote forcefully and prolifically on an astonishing range of subjects, and whose impact on later eras rivalled that of Aristotle. Galen synthesised the entirety of Greek medicine as a basis for his...

Galen of Pergamum (129–?199/216), physician to the court of the emperor Marcus Aurelius, was a philosopher, scientist, medical historian, theoretician, and practitioner who wrote forcefully and prolifically on an astonishing range of subjects, whose impact on later eras rivaled that of Aristotle. Galen synthesized the entirety of Greek medicine as a basis for his own doctrines and practice, which comprehensively...

If the work of Hippocrates is taken as representing the foundation upon which the edifice of historical Greek medicine was reared, then the work of Galen, who lived some six hundred years later, may be looked upon as the summit of the same edifice. He was born in Pergamum in 129 CE, and both there and in other academic centres...

Galen of Pergamum (129–?199/216), physician to the court of the emperor Marcus Aurelius, was a philosopher, scientist, medical historian, theoretician, and practitioner who wrote forcefully and prolifically on an astonishing range of subjects. His impact on later eras rivalled that of Aristotle. Galen synthesised the entirety of Greek medicine as a basis for his own doctrines and practice, which comprehensively...