Galen

The most famous physician of the Roman Empire, whose theories dominated Western medicine for more than a thousand years.

Life

Pergamon

Galen was born in Pergamon in Asia Minor and studied medicine at the temple of the god of medicine in his hometown, later furthering his studies in Alexandria. Back home he served as physician to the gladiators, gaining extensive experience in treating wounds.

Physician to gladiators

He came to Rome c. 162 CE, where his medical skill made him famous, and he later became court physician to Emperor Marcus Aurelius. By dissecting monkeys, pigs and other animals he studied the structure of the body, showed that the arteries carry blood rather than air, and wrote hundreds of medical works.

Imperial physician

He inherited and developed the humoral theory of Hippocrates. His writings were treated as authoritative for more than a thousand years, until they were corrected by Vesalius and others during the Renaissance.

Legacy

Galen was the most influential physician of antiquity, and his teachings dominated medicine in Europe and the Islamic world for more than 1,000 years.

Major works & achievements

• On the Usefulness of the Parts of the Body

Did you know? Because Rome forbade the dissection of human bodies, many of his anatomical conclusions came from animals and so contained quite a few errors.

Key dates

• 157Became physician to gladiators
• 162Arrives in Rome
• 169Became personal physician to Marcus Aurelius
• 216Died (approx.)