54 HUMAN DISSECTION. ITS DRAMA AND STRUGGLE 



who was also president of the games. During his tenure there, 

 he undoubtedly learned something about living, human structure, 

 by observation of wounded participants who had fought with 

 spears, swords and loaded gloves. 



Avoiding local wars, Galen traveled to Rome for the first time 

 at the age of thirty-one (c. A.D. 161-162) and found it in its 

 heyday, a brilliant capital, which offered golden opportunities 

 to Greek physicians. In this city, he ascended to a high, medical 

 rank on the basis of his brilliant elocution, his accurate logic, his 

 profound erudition and his versatility and practical skill (Park, 

 '08). However, he was soon at loggerheads with other practi- 

 tioners, which may have been caused by his rapid success and 

 his personality traits. He returned to Pergamon at the age of 

 thirty-eight, in A.D. 168, for reasons not entirely clear: either 

 because of diverse threats of assassination to himself or dangers 

 from the bubonic plague, which was then beginning to decimate 

 the Empire. He was called back within a year, by sovereign decree 

 of Marcus Aurelius, to serve as military surgeon for the Roman 

 army which was preparing to fight German invaders from the 

 north. He begged off from this assignment and was destined to re- 

 main in Italy until the age of sixty-two (A.D. 169-192) acting as 

 court physician to both Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. Much 

 of his time, during this interval, was spent in literary activity. 



In A.D. 192, the Temple of Peace on the Sacred Way, many 

 libraries and bookshops were destroyed by fire in Rome. Most of 

 Galen's writings were lost. Also, the Roman, political climate 

 during the reign of Emperor Commodus (A.D. 180-192) had 

 become intolerable for scholars and philosophers due to his im- 

 orthodox antics; he was an athletic brute who regarded himself 

 as the reincarnation of Hercules and he took delight in disporting 

 himself at the Circus Games as both consul and gladiator. His 

 supporters finally became outraged at his activities and they 

 strangled him on January 1st, A.D. 193. Because of these factors, 

 Galen made the decision to return to the quiet of his native city; 

 there he spent the remainder of his life, about eight years, in iso- 

 lated meditation and writing. 



Many of the things that Galen was the first to describe in his 

 his writings, were not necessarily based on pioneering observa^ 



