Galen

Galen, born in Pergamon in September 129 CE and died around 216 CE, was a highly influential Roman physician, surgeon, and philosopher of Greek descent. His comprehensive education and extensive travels exposed him to diverse medical theories. He settled in Rome, serving prominent figures and eventually becoming a personal physician to Roman emperors. Galen's medical understanding was largely shaped by the theory of the four humors. His anatomical research, predominantly based on dissections of animals like Barbary apes and pigs due to restrictions on human dissection in the Roman Empire, significantly impacted Western medical science for over thirteen centuries. His work on the circulatory system, anatomy, and physiology remained largely unchallenged until the Renaissance. Galen viewed himself as both a physician and a philosopher, integrating philosophical thought with medical practice through observation, dissection, and experimentation. He contributed to understanding the mind-body problem and proposed early concepts of psychotherapy. His prolific writings, though many were lost, formed the basis of medical knowledge for centuries, influencing both Byzantine and Islamic medicine, and later, medieval and Renaissance European scholarship.