Definition: Galen was born in 129 A.D., in Pergamum, where his father, Aelius Nico, was an architect. Pergamum was an important medical center with a sanctuary to the healing god Asclepius. At Pergamum, Galen became a therapeutes or attendant of Asclepius.
At about the age of 30 Galen went to Rome to practice medicine. At Rome, as court physician to Marcus Aurelius, Lucius Verus, Commodus, and Septimius Severus, Galen practiced medicine and animal dissection, and gave lectures, until his death some time after A.D. 210.
Galen was a prolific writer who wrote on philosophy and the following medical topics: anatomy, physiology, and therapeutics.
