Galen's Significance

Galen is the most important medical writer in Graeco-Roman antiquity, and also extremely valuable for understanding Graeco-Roman thought and society in the second century AD.

Scope of the Volume

This volume of essays locates him firmly in the intellectual life of his period, and thus aims to make better sense of the medical and philosophical world of knowledge that he tries to create.

Key Questions Explored

How did Galen present himself as a reader and an author in comparison with other intellectuals of his day? Above all, how did he fashion himself as a medical practitioner, and how does that self-fashioning relate to the performance culture of second-century Rome? Did he see medicine as taking over some of the traditional roles of philosophy?

Expert Contributions

These and other questions are freshly addressed by leading international experts on Galen and the intellectual life of the period, in a stimulating collection that combines learning with accessibility.