ABSTRACT
Claudius Galen (130-201 CE), born in Pergamon, was the most respected medical authority from Graeco-Roman antiquity (Fig. 6.1). His teachings, based in large part on the writings of Hippocrates and Aristotle, defined medical thought and practice for fifteen centuries. The work of Galen, as he was more commonly called, was to the field of medicine what the Bible was to the Church, and questioning it in any way was akin to heresy.
