ABSTRACT
Galen (ad 129—c.199) A physician, anatomist and writer in Greek on medicine and philosophy. Galen was born at Pergamon in Asia Minor, the son of a rich, well-educated architect, Nicon, who gave him an excellent education in rhetoric, philosophy and mathematics. When Galen was 16, his father, under the influence of dreams, transferred him to the study of medicine in the precinct of the god Asclepius at Pergamon (which contained a facility for dream cures), and, after his father’s death, he pursued his medical studies at Smyrna, Corinth and Alexandria. He returned to Pergamon in 157 to become doctor of the gladiatorial school, but finding this work distasteful he moved in 162 to Rome, where he quickly established a fine reputation and was in demand among the highest society. After four years, however, he had made enemies within his profession through his outspoken criticism, and withdrew to Pergamon, where he remained until 169 when the emperor, Marcus Aurelius, summoned him back to Rome, perhaps on account of the last illness of his co-emperor, Lucius Verus, to be court physician. He remained in this post during the reign of Marcus’ son, Commodus, and the reign of Severus. He is generally said to have died in 199, but the date is uncertain and he may have survived well into the next century.
