Galinos

Galen, the greatest physician of antiquity after Hippocrates, and perhaps his equal, was born in Pergamon in 129 AD. The son of the architect and mathematician Nikon, he received a thorough education, initially in philosophy and subsequently in medicine. After studying with the best doctors of his time in Smyrna and Alexandria, he returned to Pergamon, where he was appointed as the physician for the gladiators. He traveled to Rome for the first time in 161 AD, where he gained great fame but also provoked much envy, to the extent that he was forced to leave with the outbreak of a major epidemic in 166 AD. However, his reputation had grown so great that Emperor Marcus Aurelius summoned him again in 168 AD as his personal physician. The place and time of his death remain unknown; it is speculated to be in Sicily around 200 AD. Author of hundreds of medical, philosophical, and grammatical works, Galen was always eclectic in his views, believing that "the best physician is also a philosopher." He summarized the entire medical and philosophical tradition before him—from Hippocrates and Plato to Aristotle and the Stoics—into a curious, sometimes contradictory and confusing, yet comprehensive and interesting system. This system would form the basis of Arabic and medieval, as well as modern folk medicine. His approach to the human body as a unified whole characterized by absolute balance and moderation in its healthy state, and the promotion of a medical model that stands above material goods and all kinds of expediencies, make his work relevant even in today's era of rapid technological advancement.