The Prince of Medicine: Galen in the Roman Empire

By Susan P. Mattern

Categories: Biographies & Memoirs, History

Historian Susan Mattern tells the life of Galen of Pergamum, the Greek physician whose ideas dominated medicine for more than a thousand years. She follows him from tending wounded gladiators to serving as doctor to Roman emperors, and describes his experiments, his writings and his rivalries. Mattern shows how Galen's world of Roman medicine, philosophy and status shaped his career and lasting influence.

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• Shane Parrish: “We owe a lot of modern medicine to Galen of Pergamum (A.D. 129- ca. 216) who began his career tending to wounded gladiators in Asia Minor and rose to one of a few who treated the family of Emperor Marcus Aurelius.”