170-618: The Antonine Plague of AD 165 to 180, also known as the Plague of Galen (after Galen , the Greek physician who described it), was a prolonged and destructive epidemic , which impacted the Roman Empire . It was possibly contracted and spread by soldiers who were returning from campaign in the Near East . Scholars generally believed the plague was smallpox , due to the skin eruptions over
340-536: A broader economic decline and social instability throughout the empire in the years that followed. Epidemics were common in the ancient world, but the Antonine plague was the first known pandemic of the Roman Empire. The Antonine plague spread throughout the Roman Empire and infected many millions of people. The pandemic erupted during the last years of what is often considered the "golden age" of Rome during
510-563: A cavalry contingent attached). Around 80 AD, a minority of auxiliary regiments were doubled in size. Until about 68 AD, the auxilia were recruited by a mix of conscription and voluntary enlistment. After that time, the auxilia became largely a volunteer corps, with conscription resorted to only in emergencies. Auxiliaries were required to serve a minimum of 25 years, although many served for longer periods. On completion of their minimum term, auxiliaries were awarded Roman citizenship, which carried important legal, fiscal and social advantages. Alongside
680-530: A comprehensive education that prepared him for a successful career as a physician and philosopher. Born in the ancient city of Pergamon (present-day Bergama , Turkey), Galen traveled extensively, exposing himself to a wide variety of medical theories and discoveries before settling in Rome , where he served prominent members of Roman society and eventually was given the position of personal physician to several emperors . Galen's understanding of anatomy and medicine
850-433: A core of lasting traditions. Until c. 550 BC , there was no "national" Roman army, but a series of clan-based war-bands which only coalesced into a united force in periods of serious external threat. Around 550 BC, during the period conventionally known as the rule of king Servius Tullius , it appears that a universal levy of eligible adult male citizens was instituted. This development apparently coincided with
1020-868: A core of units which were both professional and disciplined. It contained formidable guards units such as the Varangians , the Athanatoi , a unit of heavy cavalry stationed in Constantinople , the Vardariotai and the Archontopouloi , recruited by Alexios from the sons of dead Byzantine officers, foreign mercenary regiments, and also units of professional soldiers recruited from the provinces. These provincial troops included kataphraktoi cavalry from Macedonia, Thessaly and Thrace, and various other provincial forces such as Trebizond archers from
1190-512: A day in the city of Rome , 25% of those who were affected. The total death count has been estimated at 5–10 million, roughly 10% of the population of the empire. The disease was particularly deadly in the cities and within the Roman army . The Antonine plague occurred during the last years of what is called the Pax Romana , the high point in the influence, territorial control, and population of
1360-444: A dream in which the god Asclepius appeared and commanded Nicon to send his son to study medicine. Following his earlier liberal education, Galen at age 16 began his studies at the prestigious local healing temple or asclepeion as a θεραπευτής ( therapeutes , or attendant) for four years. There he came under the influence of men like Aeschrion of Pergamon , Stratonicus and Satyrus. Asclepiea functioned as spas or sanitoria to which
1530-411: A fatality rate of about 10% (7.5 million people) of the total population of the empire with death rates of up to 15% in the cities and the army. If the pandemic was indeed smallpox, the number who died would have probably been about 25% of those infected as the survival rate from smallpox is often around 75%. The traditional view was expressed by Barthold Georg Niebuhr (1776–1831) who concluded that "as
1700-404: A male, preferably of an older, wiser, age, as well as free from the control of the passions. These passions, according to Galen, caused the psychological problems that people experienced. Galen may have produced more work than any author in antiquity, rivaling the quantity of work issued from Augustine of Hippo . So profuse was Galen's output that the surviving texts represent nearly half of all
1870-738: A materialist reading of Galen's philosophy of mind. According to this materialist reading, Galen identifies the soul with the mixtures of the body. Another one of Galen's major works, On the Diagnosis and Cure of the Soul's Passion , discussed how to approach and treat psychological problems. This was Galen's early attempt at what would later be called psychotherapy . His book contained directions on how to provide counsel to those with psychological issues to prompt them to reveal their deepest passions and secrets, and eventually cure them of their mental deficiency. The leading individual, or therapist, had to be
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#17327655320742040-745: A medical text both in the Latin Middle Ages and Medieval Islam . The 11th-century Suda lexicon states that Galen died at the age of 70, which would place his death in about the year 199. However, there is a reference in Galen's treatise "On Theriac to Piso" (which may, however, be spurious) to events of 204. There are also statements in Arabic sources that he died in Sicily at age 87, after 17 years studying medicine and 70 practicing it, which would mean he died about 216. According to these sources,
2210-417: A mixed conscript and volunteer corps serving an average of 10 years, to all-volunteer units of long-term professionals serving a standard 25-year term (conscription was only decreed in emergencies). In the later 1st century, the size of a legion's First Cohort was doubled, increasing legionary personnel to c. 5,500. Alongside the legions, Augustus established the auxilia , a regular corps of similar numbers to
2380-422: A more complete understanding of the circulatory system, nervous system , respiratory system , and other structures, his work contained scientific errors. Galen believed the circulatory system to consist of two separate one-way systems of distribution, rather than a single unified system of circulation. He believed venous blood to be generated in the liver, from where it was distributed and consumed by all organs of
2550-730: A number of fully equipped troops up to a specified maximum each year. The Second Punic War (218–201 BC) saw the addition of a third element to the existing dual Roman/Italian structure: non-Italian mercenaries with specialist skills lacking in the legions and alae : Numidian light cavalry , Cretan archers , and Balearic slingers . From this time, these units always accompanied Roman armies. The Republican army of this period, like its earlier forebear, did not maintain standing or professional military forces, but levied them, by compulsory conscription, as required for each campaigning season and disbanded thereafter (although formations could be kept in being over winter during major wars). The standard levy
2720-555: A number of works attributed to Galen. As a consequence, research on Galen's work is fraught with hazard. Various attempts have been made to classify Galen's vast output. For instance Coxe (1846) lists a Prolegomena, or introductory books, followed by 7 classes of treatise embracing Physiology (28 vols.), Hygiene (12), Aetiology (19), Semeiotics (14), Pharmacy (10), Blood letting (4), and Therapeutics (17), in addition to 4 of aphorisms, and spurious works. The most complete compendium of Galen's writings, surpassing even modern projects like
2890-521: A pestilence occurred which at its height killed 2,000 people a day in Rome. This was most likely the same plague (the so-called "Antonine Plague" and most likely smallpox) that struck Rome during Marcus Aurelius' reign. Galen was also physician to Septimius Severus during his reign in Rome. He complimented Severus and Caracalla on keeping a supply of drugs for their friends and mentioned three cases in which they had been of use in 198. The Antonine Plague
3060-502: A physician and a philosopher, as he wrote in his treatise titled That the Best Physician Is Also a Philosopher . Galen was very interested in the debate between the rationalist and empiricist medical sects, and his use of direct observation, dissection, and vivisection represents a complex middle ground between the extremes of those two viewpoints. Many of his works have been preserved and/or translated from
3230-472: A pig, and while it was squealing he would tie off the recurrent laryngeal nerve, or vocal cords, showing they controlled the making of sound. He used the same method to tie off the ureters to prove his theories of kidney and bladder function. Galen believed the human body had three interconnected systems that allowed it to work. The first system that he theorized consisted of the brain and the nerves, responsible for thought and sensation. The second theorized system
3400-411: A place squarely in the forefront." To the contrary, a team of six historians questioned the "extreme" position of Harper and others on this plague as "ignoring scholarship that suggests it had a less than catastrophic outcome," but the historians affirmed that "we do not doubt that disease and climate had some of the impact Harper describes." Some historians have hypothesized that the epidemic resulted in
3570-468: A practicing physician. His public demonstrations and impatience with alternative views on medicine brought him into conflict with other doctors practicing in the city. When the Peripatetic philosopher Eudemus became ill with quartan fever , Galen felt obliged to treat him "since he was my teacher and I happened to live nearby". He wrote: "I return to the case of Eudemus. He was thoroughly attacked by
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#17327655320743740-444: A provincial governor's police force. As a large, disciplined and skilled force of fit men, they played a crucial role in the construction of a province's Roman military and civil infrastructure: in addition to constructing forts and fortified defences such as Hadrian's Wall , they built roads, bridges, ports, public buildings, entire new cities (Roman colonies), and also engaged in large-scale forest clearance and marsh drainage to expand
3910-620: A skin eruption, sometimes dry and sometimes pustular , that appeared on the 9th day of the illness to be a series of symptoms. The information that was provided by Galen does not unambiguously identify the nature of the disease, but scholars have generally preferred to diagnose it as smallpox . The historian William H. McNeill asserts that the Antonine Plague and the later Plague of Cyprian (251–c. 270) were outbreaks of two different diseases, one of smallpox and one of measles but not necessarily in that order. The severe devastation to
4080-533: A surge in the popularity of the cult of Asclepius , the god of medicine; the epigraphic record, however, shows no evidence of such increase in the cult's popularity. The ancient chroniclers portray the plague as a disaster for the Roman army with the army "reduced almost to extinction." This came in 166 at the beginning at the Marcomannic Wars in which Germanic tribes were invading Roman territory south of
4250-471: A young man had come to the city and had given, like me practical demonstrations of the resources of our art; this young man was put to death by poison, together with two servants who accompanied him." When Galen's animosity with the Roman medical practitioners became serious, he feared he might be exiled or poisoned, so he left the city. Rome was engaged in foreign wars in 161; Marcus Aurelius and his then co-Emperor and adoptive brother Lucius Verus were in
4420-408: Is a mixture of nutritious blood from the liver and the vital spirit (the soul) which was attained from the lungs. The vital spirit within this medium was necessary for the body to function and eventually completely absorbed. This process was then repeated indefinitely, according to Galen, so that the body could be replenished with the soul, or the vital spirit. Several schools of thought existed within
4590-412: The primus pilus , was elevated to equestrian rank upon completion of his single-year term of office. The senior officers of the army, the legati legionis (legion commanders), tribuni militum (legion staff officers) and the praefecti (commanders of auxiliary regiments) were all of at least equestrian rank. In the 1st and early 2nd centuries, they were mainly Italian aristocrats performing
4760-517: The Corpus Medicorum Graecorum/Latinorum [ de ] , is the one compiled and translated by Karl Gottlob Kühn of Leipzig between 1821 and 1833. This collection consists of 122 of Galen's treatises, translated from the original Greek into Latin (the text is presented in both languages). Over 20,000 pages in length, it is divided into 22 volumes, with 676 index pages. Many of Galen's works are included in
4930-730: The Thesaurus Linguae Graecae , a digital library of Greek literature started in 1972. Another useful modern source is the French Bibliothèque interuniversitaire de médecine Archived 2014-04-21 at the Wayback Machine (BIUM). In his time, Galen's reputation as both physician and philosopher was legendary, the emperor Marcus Aurelius describing him as "Primum sane medicorum esse, philosophorum autem solum" (first among doctors and unique among philosophers Praen 14: 660 ). Other contemporary authors in
5100-587: The Pyrrhonists . Galen was concerned to combine philosophical thought with medical practice, as in his brief work That the Best Physician is also a Philosopher he took aspects from each group and combined them with his original thought. He regarded medicine as an interdisciplinary field that was best practiced by utilizing theory, observation, and experimentation in conjunction. Galen combined his observations of his dissections with Plato's theory about
5270-458: The Regal Era (to c. 500 BC), the standard levy was probably of 9,000 men, consisting of 6,000 heavily armed infantry (probably Greek-style hoplites ), plus 2,400 light-armed infantry ( rorarii , later called velites ) and 600 light cavalry ( equites celeres ). When the kings were replaced by two annually elected praetores in c. 500 BC, the standard levy remained of the same size, but
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5440-473: The Renaissance . Some of Galen's treatises have appeared under many different titles over the years. Sources are often in obscure and difficult-to-access journals or repositories. Although written in Greek, by convention the works are referred to by Latin titles, and often by merely abbreviations of those. No single authoritative collection of his work exists, and controversy remains as to the authenticity of
5610-588: The Roman army of the mid-Republic , or the Polybian army, was the manipular organization of its battle-line. Instead of a single, large mass (the phalanx ) as in the Early Roman army , the Romans now drew up in three lines consisting of small units (maniples) of 120 men, arrayed in chessboard fashion, giving much greater tactical strength and flexibility. This structure was probably introduced in c. 300 BC during
5780-466: The Samnite Wars . Also probably dating from this period was the regular accompaniment of each legion by a non-citizen formation of roughly equal size, the ala , recruited from Rome's Italian allies, or socii . The latter were approximately 150 autonomous states which were bound by a treaty of perpetual military alliance with Rome. Their sole obligation was to supply to the Roman army, on demand,
5950-594: The extant literature from ancient Greece. It has been reported that Galen employed twenty scribes to write down his words. Galen may have written as many as 500 treatises, amounting to some 10 million words. Although his surviving works amount to some 3 million words, this is thought to represent less than a third of his complete writings. In 191, or more likely in 192, a fire in the Temple of Peace destroyed many of his works, in particular treatises on philosophy. Because Galen's works were not translated into Latin in
6120-469: The pulmonary circulation contradicted the Galenic theory on the heart. The influence of Galen's writings, including humorism, remains strong in modern Unani medicine , now closely identified with Islamic culture, and widely practiced from India (where it is officially recognized) to Morocco. Maimonides was influenced by Galen, whom he cited most often in his medical works, and whom he considered to be
6290-572: The "medical refrigerators of antiquity". In late antiquity, medical writing veered increasingly in the direction of the theoretical at the expense of the practical, with many authors merely debating Galenism. Magnus of Nisibis was a pure theorist, as were John of Alexandria and Agnellus of Ravenna with their lectures on Galen's De Sectis . So strong was Galenism that other authors such as Hippocrates began to be seen through Galen's eyes, while his opponents became marginalised and other medical sects such as Asclepiadism slowly disappeared. Greek medicine
6460-434: The 13th century. However, Galen's influence was so great that when dissections discovered anomalies compared with Galen's anatomy, the physicians often tried to fit these into the Galenic system. An example of this is Mondino de Liuzzi , who describes rudimentary blood circulation in his writings but still asserts that the left ventricle should contain air. Some cited these changes as proof that human anatomy had changed since
6630-676: The 5th and 6th centuries during late antiquity. The traditional Roman view attributed the cause of the Antonine plague to the violation by the Roman army of a temple in the city of Seleucia during the Parthian campaign of Lucius Verus . The soldiers then carried it back to the Roman Empire from the Parthian Empire in early 166. However, the first documented case of the plague was in Smyrna (in Roman Anatolia ) in 165 where
6800-481: The Arabic. In some cases scholars have even attempted to translate from the Latin or Arabic back into Greek where the original is lost. For some of the ancient sources, such as Herophilus , Galen's account of their work is all that survives. Even in his own time, forgeries and unscrupulous editions of his work were a problem, prompting him to write On His Own Books . Forgeries in Latin, Arabic or Greek continued until
6970-610: The Black Sea coast of Anatolia . Alongside troops raised and paid for directly by the state the Komnenian army included the armed followers of members of the wider imperial family and its extensive connections. In this can be seen the beginnings of the feudalisation of the Byzantine military. The granting of pronoia holdings, where land, or more accurately rights to revenue from land, was held in return for military obligations,
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7140-584: The Byzantine Empire. All of the extant Greek manuscripts of Galen were copied by Byzantine scholars. In the Abbasid period (after 750) Arab Muslims began to be interested in Greek scientific and medical texts for the first time, and had some of Galen's texts translated into Arabic, often by Syrian Christian scholars (see below). As a result, some texts of Galen exist only in Arabic translation, while others exist only in medieval Latin translations of
7310-592: The East Roman army. The army of the Principate underwent a significant transformation, as a result of the chaotic 3rd century . Unlike the Principate army, the army of the 4th century was heavily dependent on conscription and its soldiers were more poorly remunerated than in the 2nd century. Barbarians from outside the empire probably supplied a much larger proportion of the late army's recruits than in
7480-630: The Empire's definitive division into Eastern and Western halves in 395. A few decades afterwards, the Western army disintegrated as the Western Empire collapsed. The East Roman army , on the other hand, continued intact and essentially unchanged until its reorganization by themes and transformation into the Byzantine army in the 7th century. The term late Roman army is often used to include
7650-521: The European population from the two plagues may indicate that people had no previous exposure to either disease, which brought immunity to survivors. Other historians believe that both outbreaks involved smallpox. The latter view is bolstered by molecular estimates that place the evolution of measles sometime after 1000 AD. However, Galen's description of the Antonine Plague is not completely consistent with smallpox. Historians differ in their assessment of
7820-609: The Greek world confirm this including Theodotus the Shoemaker , Athenaeus and Alexander of Aphrodisias . The 7th-century poet George of Pisida went so far as to refer to Christ as a second and neglected Galen. Galen continued to exert an important influence over the theory and practice of medicine until the mid-17th century in the Byzantine and Arabic worlds and Europe. A few centuries after Galen, Palladius Iatrosophista stated in his commentary on Hippocrates that Hippocrates sowed and Galen reaped. Galen summarized and synthesized
7990-456: The Greek, such as Burgundio of Pisa 's translation of De complexionibus . Galen's works on anatomy and medicine became the mainstay of the medieval physician's university curriculum, alongside Ibn Sina's The Canon of Medicine , which elaborated on Galen's works. Unlike pagan Rome, Christian Europe did not exercise a universal prohibition of the dissection and autopsy of the human body and such examinations were carried out regularly from at least
8160-759: The Praetors' authority, at least nominally. In 493 BC, shortly after the establishment of the Roman Republic , Rome concluded a perpetual treaty of military alliance (the Foedus Cassianum ), with the combined other Latin city-states. The treaty, probably motivated by the need for the Latins to deploy a united defence against incursions by neighbouring hill-tribes, provided for each party to provide an equal force for campaigns under unified command. It remained in force until 358 BC. The central feature of
8330-484: The Principate peak of c. 440,000. The main change in structure was the establishment of large armies that accompanied the emperors ( comitatus praesentales ) and were generally based away from the frontiers. Their primary function was to deter usurpations . The legions were split up into smaller units comparable in size to the auxiliary regiments of the Principate. In parallel, legionary armour and equipment were abandoned in favour of auxiliary equipment. Infantry adopted
8500-542: The Rationalist sect and from the Empiricist sect. Galen was well known for his advancements in medicine and the circulatory system, but he was also concerned with philosophy. He developed his own tripartite soul model following the examples of Plato; some scholars refer to him as a Platonist. Galen developed a theory of personality based on his understanding of fluid circulation in humans, and he believed that there
8670-677: The Roman Empire, such as the Antonine Plague, the Plague of Cyprian , and the Plague of Justinian , are strongly linked to periods of cooler and drier climate conditions, indicating that colder weather may have contributed to the spread of these diseases during that time. It is thought climate stress interacted with social and biological variables, such as food availability, rodent populations, and human migration, making populations more susceptible to disease. Galen Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus ( Greek : Κλαύδιος Γαληνός ; September 129 – c. 216 AD), often anglicized as Galen ( / ˈ ɡ eɪ l ən / ) or Galen of Pergamon ,
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#17327655320748840-528: The Roman Empire. Historians differ in their opinions of the impact of the plague on the empire in the increasingly troubled eras after its appearance. Based on archaeological records, Roman commercial activity in the Indian Ocean extending to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia from ports of Roman Egypt seems to have suffered a major setback after the plague. This disruption likely contributed to
9010-513: The Roman knightly order) were eligible to serve as senior officers. Iuniores of the highest social classes ( equites and the First Class of commoners) provided the legion's cavalry, the other classes the legionary infantry. The proletarii (those assessed at under 400 drachmae wealth) were ineligible for legionary service and were assigned to the fleets as oarsmen. Elders, vagrants, freedmen, slaves and convicts were excluded from
9180-470: The Second Punic War had been excluded from service in the legions by the minimum property requirement: during that war, extreme manpower needs had forced the army to ignore the requirement, and this practice continued thereafter. Maniples were gradually phased out as the main tactical unit, and replaced by the larger cohorts used in the allied alae , a process probably complete by the time
9350-523: The Stoics' lack of scientific justification discredited their claims of the separateness of mind and body, which is why he spoke so strongly against them. There is an intense scholarly debate about soul–body relations in Galen's psychological writings. In his brief treatise Quod animi mores , Galen says both that the soul "follows" the mixtures of the body, and that the soul is a bodily mixture. Scholars have offered ways of reconciling these claims, arguing for
9520-456: The accession of a new emperor. In addition, on completion of their term of service, they were given a generous discharge bonus equivalent to 13 years' salary. Auxiliaries were paid much less in the early 1st century, but by 100 AD, the differential had virtually disappeared. Similarly, in the earlier period, auxiliaries appear not to have received cash and discharge bonuses, but probably did so from Hadrian onwards. Junior officers ( principales ),
9690-535: The advice he found in Hippocrates' teaching and traveled and studied widely including such destinations as Smyrna (now İzmir ), Corinth , Crete , Cilicia (now Çukurova ), Cyprus , and finally the great medical school of Alexandria , exposing himself to the various schools of thought in medicine. In 157, aged 28, he returned to Pergamon as physician to the gladiators of the High Priest of Asia, one of
9860-625: The affections of the mind . He was born in September 129 AD. His father, Aelius Nicon , was a wealthy patrician , an architect and builder, with eclectic interests including philosophy, mathematics, logic, astronomy, agriculture and literature. Galen describes his father as a "highly amiable, just, good and benevolent man". At that time Pergamon (modern-day Bergama , Turkey) was a major cultural and intellectual centre, noted for its library , second only to that in Alexandria, as well as being
10030-610: The alimentary tract via a patient's diarrhea and stools. If the stool was very black, the patient died. He says that the amount of black stools varied. It depended on the severity of the intestinal lesions. He observes that in cases where the stool was not black, the black exanthema appeared. Galen describes the symptoms of fever, vomiting, fetid breath, catarrh , cough, and ulceration of the larynx and trachea. Galen continued to work and write in his final years, finishing treatises on drugs and remedies as well as his compendium of diagnostics and therapeutics, which would have much influence as
10200-674: The ancient period, and because of the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West, the study of Galen, along with the Greek medical tradition as a whole, went into decline in Western Europe during the Early Middle Ages , when very few Latin scholars could read Greek. However, in general, Galen and the ancient Greek medical tradition continued to be studied and followed in the Eastern Roman Empire , commonly known as
10370-583: The army of the 1st and 2nd centuries. The size of the 4th-century army is controversial. More dated scholars (e.g. A. H. M. Jones , writing in the 1960s) estimated the late army as much larger than the Principate army, half the size again or even as much as twice the size. With the benefit of archaeological discoveries of recent decades, many contemporary historians view the late army as no larger than its predecessor: under Diocletian c. 390,000 (the same as under Hadrian almost two centuries earlier) and under Constantine no greater, and probably somewhat smaller, than
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#173276553207410540-576: The army, the Empire required the use of large numbers of mercenaries. After Andronikos II took to the throne, the army fell apart and the Byzantines suffered regular defeats at the hands of their eastern opponents, although they would continue to enjoy success against the crusader territories in Greece. By c. 1350, following a destructive civil war and the outbreak of the Black Death , the Empire
10710-402: The auxilia. This was reflected in better pay and benefits. In addition, legionaries were equipped with more expensive and protective armour than auxiliaries. However, in 212, the emperor Caracalla granted Roman citizenship to all the empire's inhabitants. At this point, the distinction between legions and auxilia became moot, the latter becoming all-citizen units also. The change was reflected in
10880-423: The average life expectancy at birth was only in the mid-twenties. Dense urban populations and poor sanitation contributed to the dangers of disease. The connectivity by land and sea between the vast territories of the Roman Empire made the transfer of infectious diseases from one region to another easier and more rapid than it was in smaller, more geographically confined societies. Epidemics of infectious diseases in
11050-489: The beginning of the Komnenian period, the Byzantine army was reduced to a shadow of its former self: during the 11th century, decades of peace and neglect had reduced the old thematic forces, and the Battle of Manzikert in 1071 had destroyed the professional tagmata , the core of the Byzantine army. At Manzikert and later at Dyrrhachium , units tracing their lineage for centuries back to Late Roman army were wiped out, and
11220-458: The blood back into the lungs to be exhaled. In order to receive air from the lungs in the left ventricle, the new blood needed to get there from the right ventricle. Thus, Galen asserted that there are small holes in the septum dividing the left and right sides of the heart; these holes allowed the blood to pass through easily to receive air and exchange the aforementioned waste products. Although his anatomical experiments on animal models led him to
11390-479: The body and that the soul, as a whole, contributed to the health of the body, strengthening the "natural functioning capacity of the organ or organs in question". The rational soul controlled higher level cognitive functioning in an organism, for example, making choices or perceiving the world and sending those signals to the brain. He also listed "imagination, memory, recollection, knowledge, thought, consideration, voluntary motion, and sensation" as being found within
11560-458: The body to its function indicated the role of an intelligent creator. His creationism was anticipated by the anatomical examples of Socrates and Empedocles . Although the main focus of his work was on medicine, anatomy, and physiology, Galen also wrote about logic and philosophy. His writings were influenced by earlier Greek and Roman thinkers, including Plato , Aristotle , the Stoics , and
11730-503: The body. He posited that arterial blood originated in the heart, from where it was distributed and consumed by all organs of the body. The blood was then regenerated in either the liver or the heart, completing the cycle. Galen also believed in the existence of a group of blood vessels he called the rete mirabile in the carotid sinus. Both of these theories of the circulation of blood were later (beginning with works of Ibn al-Nafis published c. 1242 ) shown to be incorrect. Galen
11900-459: The body. More important is that it includes details of more than 150 single and compound formulations of both herbal and animal origin. The book provides an insight into understanding the traditions and methods of treatment in the Greek and Roman eras. In addition, this book provides a direct source for the study of more than 150 single and compound drugs used during the Greco-Roman period. As
12070-408: The borders, in roughly 17 of the 42 provinces of the empire in the reign of Hadrian (r. 117–138). The military chain of command was relatively uniform across the Empire. In each province, the deployed legions' legati (legion commanders, who also controlled the auxiliary regiments attached to their legion) reported to the legatus Augusti pro praetore (provincial governor), who also headed
12240-436: The brain. He conducted many anatomical studies on animals, most famously an ox, to study the transition from vital to psychic pneuma . Although highly criticized for comparing animal anatomy to human anatomy, Galen was convinced that his knowledge was abundant enough in both anatomies to base one on the other. In his treatise On the usefulness of the parts of the body , Galen argued that the perfect suitability of each part of
12410-529: The capital of the Byzantine Empire, from the surrounding land. The last decisive battle was fought by the Palaiologan army in 1453, when Constantinople was besieged and fell on 29 May. The last isolated remnants of the Byzantine state were conquered by 1461. This article contains the summaries of the detailed linked articles on the historical phases above, Readers seeking discussion of the Roman army by theme, rather than by chronological phase, should consult
12580-405: The character of the army necessarily changed from a temporary force based entirely on short-term conscription to a standing army in which the conscripts, whose service was in this period limited by law to six consecutive years, were complemented by large numbers of volunteers who were willing to serve for much longer periods. Many of the volunteers were drawn from the poorest social class, which until
12750-475: The circulatory system. The blood created in the liver would eventually flow unidirectionally into the right ventricle of the heart via the great vein. Galen also proposed a theory on how blood receives air from the lungs to be distributed throughout the body. He declared that the venous artery carried air from the lungs into the left ventricle of the heart to mix with created blood from the liver. This same venous artery allowed for an exchange of waste products from
12920-464: The city often died on a single day. Whether this new epidemic, or recurrence of the Antonine plague, impacted the empire outside the city of Rome is unknown. In 166, during the epidemic, the Greek physician and writer Galen traveled from Rome to his home in Asia Minor and returned to Rome in 168, when he was summoned by the two Augusti , the co-emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus . He
13090-593: The civil administration. The governor in turn reported directly to the emperor in Rome. There was no army general staff in Rome, but the leading praefectus praetorio (commander of the Praetorian Guard ) often acted as the emperor's de facto military chief-of-staff. Legionary rankers were relatively well-paid, compared to contemporary common labourers. Compared with their subsistence-level peasant families, they enjoyed considerable disposable income, enhanced by periodic cash bonuses on special occasions such as
13260-518: The crystalline lens is located in the anterior aspect of the human eye. At first reluctantly but then with increasing vigor, Galen promoted Hippocratic teaching, including venesection and bloodletting , then unknown in Rome. This was sharply criticized by the Erasistrateans , who predicted dire outcomes, believing that it was not blood but pneuma that flowed in the veins. Galen, however, staunchly defended venesection in his three books on
13430-555: The curriculum at the universities of Naples and Montpellier . From that time, Galenism took on a new, unquestioned authority, Galen even being referred to as the "Medical Pope of the Middle Ages". Constantine the African was amongst those who translated both Hippocrates and Galen from Arabic. In addition to the more numerous translations of Arabic texts in this period, there were a few translations of Galenic works directly from
13600-425: The difference between motor and sensory nerves , discussed the concept of muscle tone , and explained the difference between agonists and antagonists . Galen's work on animals led to some inaccuracies, most notably his anatomy of the uterus which largely resembled a dog's. Though incorrect in his studies of human reproduction and reproductive anatomy, he came very close to identifying the ovaries as analogous to
13770-493: The disappearance, during the 3rd century, of legionaries' special equipment, and the progressive break-up of legions into cohort-sized units like the auxilia. By the end of Augustus' reign, the imperial army numbered some 250,000 men, equally split between legionaries and auxiliaries (25 legions and c. 250 auxiliary regiments). The numbers grew to a peak of about 450,000 by 211 (33 legions and c. 400 auxiliary regiments). By then, auxiliaries outnumbered legionaries substantially. From
13940-402: The dissection of human cadavers since roughly 150 BC. Because of this restriction, Galen performed anatomical dissections on living ( vivisection ) and dead animals, mostly focusing on primates . Galen believed that the anatomical structures of these animals closely mirrored those of humans. Galen clarified the anatomy of the trachea and was the first to demonstrate that the larynx generates
14110-456: The early Principate. Many elements of the late army's defence posture were similar to those associated with forward defence, such as a looser forward location of forts, frequent cross-border operations, and external buffer-zones of allied barbarian tribes. Whatever the defence strategy, it was apparently less successful in preventing barbarian incursions than in the 1st and 2nd centuries. This may have been due to heavier barbarian pressure, and/or to
14280-485: The emperor launched an attack against the Germanic tribes. By 171, the Roman army had driven the invaders out of Roman territory. The war would continue sporadically until 180 when Marcus Aurelius died, possibly of the plague. This ongoing conflict contributed to a cycle of instability in the region. The plague may also have impacted the Germanic tribes. According to 2024 research, major plagues that significantly impacted
14450-403: The empire were common, with nine recorded between 43 BC and 148 AD. The rich were not immune to the unhealthy conditions. For example, only two of emperor Marcus Aurelius' fourteen children are known to have reached adulthood. A good indicator of nutrition and the disease burden is the average height of the population. The conclusion of the study of thousands of skeletons is that the average Roman
14620-535: The entirety of the body which appeared to be red and black (Horgan), although measles has also been suggested, and recent genetic evidence strongly suggests that the most severe form of smallpox arose in Europe much later. As yet, there is no genetic evidence from the Antonine plague. Ancient sources agree that the plague is likely to have appeared during the Roman siege of the Mesopotamian city of Seleucia in
14790-411: The epidemic, referring to it as very long lasting, and described its symptoms and his treatment of it. His references to the plague are scattered and brief. Galen was not trying to present a description of the disease so that it could be recognized in future generations; he was more interested in the treatment and physical effects of the disease. For example, in his writings about a young man afflicted with
14960-432: The equivalent of non-commissioned officers in modern armies, could expect to earn up to twice basic pay. Legionary centurions , the equivalent of mid-level commissioned officers, were organised in an elaborate hierarchy. Usually risen from the ranks, they commanded the legion's tactical sub-units of centuriae (c. 80 men) and cohorts (c. 480 men). They were paid several multiples of basic pay. The most senior centurion,
15130-646: The field army numbered around 20,000 men which was increased to about 30,000 men in John II's reign. By the end of Manuel I's reign the Byzantine field army had risen to 40,000 men. The Palaiologan army refers to the military forces of the Byzantine Empire from the late 13th century to its final collapse in the mid 15th century, under the House of the Palaiologoi . The army was a direct continuation of
15300-460: The forces of the Nicaean army, which itself was a fractured component of the formidable Komnenian army . Under the first Palaiologan emperor, Michael VIII, the army's role took an increasingly offensive role whilst the naval forces of the Empire, weakened since the days of Andronikos I Komnenos, were boosted to include thousands of skilled sailors and some 80 ships. Due to the lack of land to support
15470-424: The general Marius assumed command in 107 BC. (The so-called " Marian reforms " of the army hypothesised by some scholars are today seen by other scholars as having evolved earlier and more gradually.) In the period after the defeat of Carthage in 201 BC, the army was campaigning exclusively outside Italy, resulting in its men being away from their home plots of land for many years at a stretch. They were assuaged by
15640-499: The greatest physician of all time. In India many Hindu physicians studied Persian and Urdu languages and learnt Galenic medicine. This trend of studies among Hindu physicians began in the 17th century and lasted until the early 20th century (Speziale 2018). From the 11th century onwards, Latin translations of Islamic medical texts began to appear in the West, alongside the Salerno school of thought, and were soon incorporated into
15810-690: The human body. His anatomical reports remained uncontested until 1543, when printed descriptions and illustrations of human dissections were published in the seminal work De humani corporis fabrica by Andreas Vesalius , where Galen's physiological theory was accommodated to these new observations. Galen's theory of the physiology of the circulatory system remained unchallenged until c. 1242 , when Ibn al-Nafis published his book Sharh tashrih al-qanun li' Ibn Sina ( Commentary on Anatomy in Avicenna's Canon ), in which he reported his discovery of pulmonary circulation . Galen saw himself as both
15980-461: The impact of the Antonine Plague on Rome. To some, the plague was the beginning of the decline of the Roman Empire. To others, it was a minor event, documented by Galen and other writers but only slightly more deadly than other epidemics which frequently ravaged parts of the empire. Estimates of the fatalities from the pandemic range from 2 to 33% of the Roman Empire's population with deaths between 1.5 and 25 million people. Most estimates coalesce around
16150-429: The infantry retained its traditional reputation for excellence. The 3rd and 4th centuries saw the upgrading of many existing border forts to make them more defensible, as well as the construction of new forts with much higher defensive specifications. The interpretation of this trend has fuelled an ongoing debate whether the army adopted a defence-in-depth strategy or continued the same posture of "forward defence" as in
16320-414: The introduction of heavy armour for most of the infantry. Although originally low in numbers, the Roman infantry was extremely effective and developed some influential battle strategies. The early Roman army was based on a compulsory levy from adult male citizens which was held at the start of each campaigning season, in those years that war was declared. There were no standing or professional forces. During
16490-482: The large amounts of booty that they shared after victories in the rich eastern theatre. But in Italy, the ever-increasing concentration of public lands in the hands of big landowners, and the consequent displacement of the soldiers' families, led to great unrest and demands for land redistribution. This was successfully achieved, but resulted in the disaffection of Rome's Italian allies, who as non-citizens were excluded from
16660-530: The legions, recruited from the peregrini (non-citizen inhabitants of the empire – about 90% of the empire's population in the 1st century). As well as comprising large numbers of extra heavy infantry equipped in a similar manner to legionaries, the auxilia provided virtually all the army's cavalry (heavy and light), light infantry, archers and other specialists . The auxilia were organised in c. 500-strong units called cohortes (all-infantry), alae (all-cavalry) and cohortes equitatae (infantry with
16830-401: The male testes. Reproduction was a controversial topic in Galen's lifetime, as there was much debate over if the male was solely responsible for the seed, or if the woman was also responsible. Through his vivisection practices, Galen also proved that the voice was controlled by the brain. One of the most famous experiments that he recreated in public was the squealing pig: Galen would cut open
17000-697: The medical field during Galen's lifetime, the main two being the Empiricists and Rationalists (also called Dogmatists or Philosophers), with the Methodists being a smaller group. The Empiricists emphasized the importance of physical practice and experimentation or "active learning" in the medical discipline. In direct opposition to the Empiricists were the Rationalists, who valued the study of established teachings in order to create new theories in
17170-663: The medieval and early modern Islamic Middle East. Job of Edessa is said to have translated 36 of Galen's works into Syriac, some of which were later translated into Arabic by Hunain ibn Ishaq . Galen's approach to medicine became and remains influential in the Islamic world. The first major translator of Galen into Arabic was the Arab Christian Hunayn ibn Ishaq . He translated ( c. 830–870 ) 129 works of "Jalinos" into Arabic . Arabic sources, such as Muhammad ibn Zakarīya al-Rāzi (AD 865–925), continue to be
17340-420: The mental and the physical. This was a controversial argument at the time, and Galen agreed with some Greek philosophical schools in believing that the mind and body were not separate faculties. He believed that this could be scientifically shown. This was where his opposition to the Stoics became most prevalent. Galen proposed organs within the body to be responsible for specific functions. According to Galen,
17510-470: The middle Danube River in what is now the Czech Republic and Slovakia , and south to Italy. As the Roman army struggled with manpower shortages, the plague not only decimated their ranks but also weakened their strategic positions. The impact of the plague forced Marcus Aurelius to recruit and train additional soldiers from among "gladiators, slaves, and bandits." After a delay of two years, in 169
17680-399: The military component of their cursus honorum (conventional career path). Later, provincial career officers became predominant. Senior officers were paid very high salaries, multiples of at least 50 times basic. A typical Roman army during this period consisted of five to six legions. One legion was made up of ten cohorts. The first cohort had five centuria each of 160 soldiers. In
17850-431: The military levy, save in emergencies. The legionary cavalry also changed, probably around 300 BC onwards from the light, unarmoured horse of the early army to a heavy force with metal armour (bronze cuirasses and, later, chain-mail shirts). Contrary to a long-held view, the cavalry of the mid-Republic was a highly effective force that generally prevailed against strong enemy cavalry forces (both Gallic and Greek) until it
18020-484: The more protective equipment of the Principate cavalry. The role of cavalry in the late army does not appear to have been enhanced as compared with the army of the Principate. The evidence is that cavalry was much the same proportion of overall army numbers as in the 2nd century and that its tactical role and prestige remained similar. Indeed, the cavalry acquired a reputation for incompetence and cowardice for their role in three major battles in mid-4th century. In contrast,
18190-495: The most influential and wealthy men in Asia. Galen claims that the High Priest chose him over other physicians after he eviscerated an ape and challenged other physicians to repair the damage. When they refused, Galen performed the surgery himself and in so doing won the favor of the High Priest of Asia. Over his four years there, he learned the importance of diet, fitness, hygiene, and preventive measures, as well as living anatomy, and
18360-483: The name of medical advancements. The Methodists formed somewhat of a middle ground, as they were not as experimental as the Empiricists, nor as theoretical as the Rationalists. The Methodists mainly utilized pure observation, showing greater interest in studying the natural course of ailments than making efforts to find remedies. Galen's education had exposed him to the five major schools of thought (Platonists, Peripatetics, Stoics, Epicureans, Pyrrhonists), with teachers from
18530-407: The nervous system. Galen went on to be the first physician to study what happens when the spinal cord is transected on multiple different levels. He worked with pigs and studied their neuroanatomy by severing different nerves either totally or partially to see how it affected the body. He even dealt with diseases affecting the spinal cord and nerves. In his work De motu musculorum , Galen explained
18700-600: The north fighting the Marcomanni . During the autumn of 169 when Roman troops were returning to Aquileia , a great plague, most likely one of the first appearances of smallpox (then referred to as the Antonine Plague ) in the Mediterranean world, broke out, and the emperor summoned Galen back to Rome. He was ordered to accompany Marcus and Verus to Germany as the court physician. The following spring Marcus
18870-458: The nucleus of the army, with the addition of the armed retainers of Alexios' relatives and the nobles enrolled in the army and the substantial aid of a large force of allied Cumans , which won the Battle of Levounion against the Pechenegs (Petcheneks or Patzinaks). Yet, through a combination of skill, determination and years of campaigning, Alexios, John and Manuel Komnenos managed to restore
19040-424: The orator Aelius Aristides almost died from the disease. From the east the plague spread westward reaching Rome in 166 and nearly every corner of the empire by 172. The co-emperor Lucius Verus died from the plague in 169 and it ravaged the Roman army. The plague endured until about 180 and another epidemic, possibly related, is reported by Dio Cassius to have struck the city of Rome in 189. Two thousand people in
19210-471: The original Greek, although many were destroyed and some credited to him are believed to be spurious. Although there is some debate over the date of his death, he was no younger than seventy when he died. Galen's Greek name Γαληνός ( Galēnós ) comes from the adjective γαληνός ( galēnós ) 'calm'. Galen's Latin name (Aelius or Claudius) implies he had Roman citizenship . Galen describes his early life in On
19380-547: The peak, numbers probably underwent a steep decline by 270 due to plague and losses during multiple major barbarian invasions. Numbers were restored to their early 2nd-century level of c. 400,000 (but probably not to their 211 peak) under Diocletian (r. 284–305). After the empire's borders became settled (on the Rhine - Danube line in Europe) by 68, virtually all military units (except the Praetorian Guard ) were stationed on or near
19550-490: The plague, he concentrated on the treatment of internal and external ulcerations. According to Niebuhr, "this pestilence must have raged with incredible fury; it carried off innumerable victims. The ancient world never recovered from the blow inflicted upon it by the plague that visited it in the reign of M. Aurelius." The mortality rate of the plague was 7–10 percent; the outbreak in 165–168 would have caused approximately 3.5 to 5 million deaths. Otto Seeck believes that over half
19720-479: The pleasures of the body and was moved by feelings of enjoyment. This third part of the soul is the animalistic, or more natural, side of the soul; it deals with the natural urges of the body and survival instincts. Galen proposed that when the soul is moved by too much enjoyment, it reaches states of "incontinence" and "licentiousness", the inability to willfully cease enjoyment, which was a negative consequence of too much pleasure. In order to unite his theories about
19890-459: The population of the empire perished. J. F. Gilliam believes that the Antonine plague probably caused more deaths than any other epidemic during the empire before the mid-3rd century. Although Galen's description is incomplete, it is sufficient to enable a firm identification of the disease as related to smallpox . Galen notes that the exanthema covered the victim's entire body and was usually black. The exanthem became rough and scabby where there
20060-429: The power of the Byzantine Empire by constructing a new army from scratch. This process should not, however, at least in its earlier phases, be seen as a planned exercise in military restructuring. In particular, Alexios I was often reduced to reacting to events rather than controlling them; the changes he made to the Byzantine army were largely done out of immediate necessity and were pragmatic in nature. The new force had
20230-490: The practice of keeping large armies of the best troops in the interior, depriving the border forces of sufficient support. The Komnenian period marked a rebirth of the Byzantine army . At the beginning of the Komnenian period in 1081, the Byzantine Empire had been reduced to the smallest territorial extent. Surrounded by enemies, and financially ruined by a long period of civil war, the empire's prospects looked grim. At
20400-482: The province's available arable land. Soldiers, mostly drawn from polytheistic societies, enjoyed wide freedom of worship in the polytheistic Roman system. They revered their own native deities, Roman deities and the local deities of the provinces in which they served. Only a few religions were banned by the Roman authorities, as being incompatible with the official Roman religion and/or politically subversive, notably Druidism and Christianity . The later Principate saw
20570-426: The rational soul. The functions of "growing or being alive" resided in the spirited soul. The spirited soul also contained our passions, such as anger. These passions were considered to be even stronger than regular emotions, and, as a consequence, more dangerous. The third part of the soul, or the appetitive spirit, controlled the living forces in our body, most importantly blood. The appetitive spirit also regulated
20740-540: The redistribution. This led to the mass revolt of the socii and the Social War (91-88 BC). The result was the grant of Roman citizenship to all Italians and the end of the Polybian army's dual structure: the alae were abolished and the socii recruited into the legions. Under the founder–emperor Augustus (ruled 30 BC – 14 AD), the legions , c. 5,000-strong all-heavy infantry formations recruited from Roman citizens only, were transformed from
20910-487: The regular forces, the army of the Principate employed allied native units (called numeri ) from outside the empire on a mercenary basis. These were led by their own aristocrats and equipped in traditional fashion. Numbers fluctuated according to circumstances and are largely unknown. As all-citizen formations, and symbolic guarantors of the dominance of the Italian hegemony, legions enjoyed greater social prestige than
21080-426: The reign of Marcus Aurelius forms a turning point in so many things, and above all in literature and art, I have no doubt that this crisis was brought about by that plague ... The ancient world never recovered from the blow inflicted on it by the plague which visited it in the reign of Marcus Aurelius." More recently, scholar Kyle Harper said something similar: the pandemic "in any account of Rome's destiny ... merit[s]
21250-414: The reign of co-emperor Marcus Aurelius . The Roman Empire at that time had a population estimated at 75 million people. Historians generally agree that the population of the Roman Empire peaked at about the time that the Antonine Plague appeared and, thereafter, the population declined. The economic prosperity of the Roman Empire notwithstanding, the conditions were propitious for a pandemic. The population
21420-437: The rise in popularity among the military of Eastern mystery cults , generally centred on one deity, and involving secret rituals divulged only to initiates. By far the most popular in the army was Mithraism , an apparently syncretist religion which mainly originated in Asia Minor . The Late Roman army is the term used to denote the military forces of the Roman Empire from the accession of emperor Diocletian in 284 until
21590-411: The second through tenth cohorts there were six centuria of 80 men each. These do not include archers, cavalry or officers. Soldiers spent only a fraction of their lives on campaign. Most of their time was spent on routine military duties such as training, patrolling, and maintenance of equipment, etc. Soldiers also played an important role outside the military sphere. They performed the function of
21760-426: The sick would come to seek the ministrations of the priesthood. Romans frequented the temple at Pergamon in search of medical relief from illness and disease. It was also the haunt of notable people such as the historian Claudius Charax, the orator Aelius Aristides , the sophist Polemo , and the consul Cuspius Rufinus . Galen's father died in 148, leaving Galen independently wealthy at the age of 19. He then followed
21930-489: The site of a large temple to the healing god Asclepius . The city attracted both Stoic and Platonic philosophers, to whom Galen was exposed at age 14. His studies also took in each of the principal philosophical systems of the time, including Aristotelian and Epicurean . His father had planned a traditional career for Galen in philosophy or politics and took care to expose him to literary and philosophical influences. However, Galen states that in around 145 his father had
22100-441: The soul and how it operated within the body, he adapted the theory of the pneuma , which he used to explain how the soul operated within its assigned organs, and how those organs, in turn, interacted together. Galen then distinguished the vital pneuma , in the arterial system, from the psychic pneuma , in the brain and nervous system. Galen placed the vital pneuma in the heart and the psychic pneuma ( spiritus animalis ) within
22270-486: The soul as having one part, which was the rational soul and they claimed it would be found in the heart. Galen, following Plato's idea, came up with two more parts to the soul. Galen also rejected Stoic propositional logic and instead embraced a hypothetical syllogistic which was strongly influenced by the Peripatetics and based on elements of Aristotelian logic. Galen believed there is no sharp distinction between
22440-440: The soul. Plato believed that the body and the soul were separate entities, rivaling the Stoics. Plato proclaimed that the soul is immortal, so it must exist before one is born, beyond the human body. This influenced Galen's thinking that the soul had to be acquired because the soul does not always reside within the human body. Plato's influence in Galen's model showed itself most prominently in what Galen dubbed arterial blood, which
22610-622: The source of discovery of new or relatively inaccessible Galenic writings. One of Hunayn's Arabic translations, Kitab ila Aglooqan fi Shifa al Amrad , which is extant in the Library of Ibn Sina Academy of Medieval Medicine & Sciences , is regarded as a masterpiece of Galen's literary works. A part of the Alexandrian compendium of Galen's work, this 10th-century manuscript comprises two parts that include details regarding various types of fevers (Humyat) and different inflammatory conditions of
22780-485: The study of Galen and other Greek works almost disappeared in the Latin West. In contrast, in the predominantly Greek-speaking eastern half of the Roman empire (Byzantium), many commentators of the subsequent centuries, such as Oribasius , physician to the emperor Julian who compiled a Synopsis in the 4th century, preserved and disseminated Galen's works, making them more accessible. Nutton refers to these authors as
22950-499: The subject and in his demonstrations and public disputations. Galen's work on anatomy remained largely unsurpassed and unchallenged up until the 16th century in Europe. In the middle of the 16th century, the anatomist Andreas Vesalius challenged the anatomical knowledge of Galen by conducting dissections on human cadavers. These investigations allowed Vesalius to refute aspects of Galen's theories regarding anatomy. Galen's interest in human anatomy ran afoul of Roman law that prohibited
23120-576: The subsequent loss of Asia Minor deprived the Empire of its main recruiting ground. In the Balkans, at the same time, the Empire was exposed to invasions by the Norman Kingdom of Sicily , and by Pecheneg raids across the Danube . The Byzantine army's nadir was reached in 1091, when Alexios I Komnenos could manage to field only 500 soldiers from the Empire's professional forces. These formed
23290-479: The three attacks of quartan ague, and the doctors had given him up, as it was now mid-winter." Some Roman physicians criticized Galen for his use of the prognosis in his treatment of Eudemus. This practice conflicted with the then-current standard of care , which relied upon divination and mysticism . Galen retaliated against his detractors by defending his own methods. Garcia-Ballester quotes Galen as saying: "In order to diagnose, one must observe and reason." This
23460-485: The time of Galen. The most important translator of Galen's works into Latin was Niccolò di Deoprepio da Reggio, who spent several years working on Galen. Niccolò worked at the Angevin Court during the reign of king Robert of Naples . Among Niccolò's translations is a piece from a medical treatise by Galen, of which the original text is lost. Roman army The Roman army ( Latin : exercitus Romanus )
23630-559: The title of Doubts on Galen by al-Rāzi implies, as well as the writings of physicians such as Ibn Zuhr and Ibn al-Nafis , the works of Galen were not accepted unquestioningly, but as a challengeable basis for further inquiry . A strong emphasis on experimentation and empiricism led to new results and new observations, which were contrasted and combined with those of Galen by writers such as al-Rāzi, Ali ibn Abbas al-Majusi , Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi , Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Ibn Zuhr, and Ibn al-Nafis. For example, Ibn al-Nafis' discovery of
23800-522: The tomb of Galenus in Palermo was still well preserved in the tenth century. Nutton believes that "On Theriac to Piso" is genuine, that the Arabic sources are correct, and that the Suda has erroneously interpreted the 70 years of Galen's career in the Arabic tradition as referring to his whole lifespan. Boudon-Millot more or less concurs and favors a date of 216. Galen contributed a substantial amount to
23970-427: The treatment of fractures and severe trauma, referring to their wounds as "windows into the body". Only five deaths among the gladiators occurred while he held the post, compared to sixty in his predecessor's time, a result that is in general ascribed to the attention he paid to their wounds. At the same time he pursued studies in theoretical medicine and philosophy. Galen went to Rome in 162 and made his mark as
24140-872: The understanding of pathology. Under the Hippocratic bodily humors theory, differences in human moods come as a consequence of imbalances in one of the four bodily fluids : blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. Galen promoted this theory and the typology of human temperaments . In Galen's view, an imbalance of each humor corresponded with a particular human temperament (blood – sanguine, black bile – melancholic, yellow bile – choleric, and phlegm – phlegmatic). Thus, individuals with sanguine temperaments are extroverted and social; choleric people have energy, passion, and charisma; melancholics are creative, kind, and considerate; and phlegmatic temperaments are characterised by dependability, kindness, and affection. Galen
24310-414: The unity of the two subjects and their views. Using their theories, combined with Aristotle's, Galen developed a tripartite soul consisting of similar aspects. He used the same terms as Plato , referring to the three parts as rational, spiritual, and appetitive. Each corresponded to a localized area of the body. The rational soul was in the brain, the spiritual soul was in the heart, and the appetitive soul
24480-471: The voice. In one experiment, Galen used bellows to inflate the lungs of a dead animal. Galen's research on physiology was largely influenced by previous works of philosophers Plato and Aristotle, as well as from the physician Hippocrates. He was one of the first people to use experiments as a method of research for his medical findings. Doing so allowed him to explore various parts of the body and its functions. Among Galen's major contributions to medicine
24650-486: The western Mediterranean Sea (264–201 BC); and (3) the struggle against the Hellenistic monarchies for control of the eastern Mediterranean (201–91 BC). During the earlier phase, the normal size of the levy (including allies) was in the region of 40,000 men (two consular armies of c. 20,000 men each). During the latter phase, with lengthy wars of conquest followed by permanent military occupation of overseas provinces,
24820-418: The winter of 165–166, during the Parthian campaign of Lucius Verus . Ammianus Marcellinus reported that the plague spread to Gaul and to the legions along the Rhine . Eutropius stated that a large proportion of the empire's population died from this outbreak. According to the contemporary Roman historian Cassius Dio , the disease broke out again nine years later in 189 AD and caused up to 2,000 deaths
24990-473: The work of his predecessors, and it is in Galen's words (Galenism) that Greek medicine was handed down to subsequent generations, such that Galenism became the means by which Greek medicine was known to the world. Often, this was in the form of restating and reinterpreting, such as in Magnus of Nisibis' 4th-century work on urine, which was in turn translated into Arabic. Yet the full importance of his contributions
25160-446: Was a Roman and Greek physician , surgeon , and philosopher . Considered to be one of the most accomplished of all medical researchers of antiquity , Galen influenced the development of various scientific disciplines, including anatomy , physiology , pathology , pharmacology , and neurology , as well as philosophy and logic . The son of Aelius Nicon , a wealthy Greek architect with scholarly interests, Galen received
25330-424: Was a physiological basis for mental disorders. Galen connected many of his theories to the pneuma and he opposed the Stoics ' definition of and use of the pneuma . The Stoics, according to Galen, failed to give a credible answer for the localization of functions of the psyche, or the mind. Through his use of medicine, he was convinced that he came up with a better answer, the brain. The Stoics only recognized
25500-404: Was also a pioneer in research about the human spine. His dissections and vivisections of animals led to key observations that helped him accurately describe the human spine, spinal cord , and vertebral column . Galen also played a major role in the discoveries of the central nervous system . He was also able to describe the nerves that emerge from the spine, which is integral to his research about
25670-415: Was also a skilled surgeon, operating on human patients. Many of his procedures and techniques would not be used again for centuries, such as the procedures he performed on brains and eyes. His surgical experiments included ligating the arteries of living animals. Although many 20th-century historians have claimed that Galen believed the lens to be in the exact center of the eye, Galen actually understood that
25840-402: Was beginning to become a notable element in the military infrastructure towards the end of the Komnenian period, though it became much more important subsequently. In 1097, the Byzantine army numbered around 70,000 men altogether. By 1180 and the death of Manuel Komnenos, whose frequent campaigns had been on a grand scale, the army was probably considerably larger. During the reign of Alexios I,
26010-558: Was decisively beaten by the Carthaginian general Hannibal 's horsemen during the Second Punic War. This was due to Hannibal's greater operational flexibility owing to his Numidian light cavalry. The Polybian army's operations during its existence can be divided into three broad phases. (1) The struggle for hegemony over Italy, especially against the Samnite League (338–264 BC); (2) the struggle with Carthage for hegemony in
26180-483: Was doubled during the Samnite Wars to four legions (two per consul), for a total of c. 18,000 Roman troops and four allied alae of similar size. Service in the legions was limited to property-owning Roman citizens, normally those known as iuniores (age 16–46). The army's senior officers, including its commanders-in-chief, the Roman consuls, were all elected annually at the People's Assembly. Only equites (members of
26350-444: Was his work on the circulatory system . He was the first to recognize that there are distinct differences between venous (dark) and arterial (bright) blood. In addition to these discoveries, Galen postulated much more about the nature of the circulatory system . He believed that blood originated in the liver, which follows the teachings of Hippocrates. The liver converted nutrients gathered from ingested food into blood to be used in
26520-440: Was in the liver. Galen was the first scientist and philosopher to assign specific parts of the soul to locations in the body because of his extensive background in medicine. This idea is now referred to as localization of function. Galen's assignments were revolutionary for the time period, which set the precedent for future localization theories. Galen believed each part of this tripartite soul controlled specific functions within
26690-460: Was named after Marcus Aurelius' family name of Antoninus. It was also known as the Plague of Galen and held an important place in medicinal history because of its association with Galen. He had first-hand knowledge of the disease, and was present in Rome when it first struck in 166, and was also present in the winter of 168–69 during an outbreak among troops stationed at Aquileia. He had experience with
26860-479: Was no longer capable of raising troops and the supplies to maintain them. The Empire came to rely upon troops provided by Serbs, Bulgarians, Venetians, Latins, Genoans and Ottoman Turks to fight the civil wars that lasted for the greater part of the 14th century, with the latter foe being the most successful in establishing a foothold in Thrace. The Ottomans swiftly expanded through the Balkans and cut off Constantinople,
27030-426: Was no ulceration. He states that those who were going to survive developed a black exanthem. According to Galen, it was black because of a remnant of blood putrefied in a fever blister that was pustular. His writings state that raised blisters were present in the Antonine plague, usually in the form of a blistery rash. Galen states that the skin rash was close to the one Thucydides described. Galen describes symptoms of
27200-473: Was not appreciated until long after his death. Galen's rhetoric and prolificity were so powerful as to convey the impression that there was little left to learn. The term Galenism has subsequently taken on both a positive and pejorative meaning as one that transformed medicine in late antiquity yet so dominated subsequent thinking as to stifle further progress. After the collapse of the Western Empire
27370-546: Was now divided equally between the praetors, each commanding one legion of 4,500 men. It is likely that the hoplite element was deployed in a Greek-style phalanx formation in large set-piece battles . However, these were relatively rare, with most fighting consisting of small-scale border-raids and skirmishing. In these, the Romans would fight in their basic tactical unit, the centuria of 100 men. In addition, separate clan-based forces remained in existence until c. 450 BC at least, although they would operate under
27540-455: Was part of Greek culture, and Syrian Christians came in contact with it while the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) ruled Syria and western Mesopotamia, regions that were conquered in the 7th century by the Arabs . After 750, these Syrian Christians made the first translations of Galen into Syriac and Arabic . From then on, Galen and the Greek medical tradition in general became assimilated into
27710-524: Was persuaded to release Galen after receiving a report that Asclepius was against the project. He was left behind to act as physician to the imperial heir Commodus . It was here in court that Galen wrote extensively on medical subjects. Ironically, Lucius Verus died in 169, and Marcus Aurelius himself died in 180, both victims of the plague. Galen was the physician to Commodus for much of the emperor's life and treated his common illnesses. According to Dio Cassius 72.14.3–4, in about 189, under Commodus' reign,
27880-411: Was present at the outbreak among troops stationed at Aquileia in the winter of 168/69. Galen briefly recorded observations and a description of the epidemic in the treatise Methodus Medendi ("Method of Treatment"), and he scattered other references to it among his voluminous writings. He described the plague as "great" and of long duration, and mentioned fever , diarrhea , and pharyngitis as well as
28050-884: Was principally influenced by the then-current theory of the four humors : black bile, yellow bile, blood, and phlegm, as first advanced by the author of On the Nature of Man in the Hippocratic corpus . Galen's views dominated and influenced Western medical science for more than 1,300 years. His anatomical reports were based mainly on the dissection of Barbary apes . However, when he discovered that their facial expressions were too much like those of humans, he switched to other animals, such as pigs . While dissections and vivisections on humans were practised in Alexandria at this time, Galen did not have Imperial permission to perform his own, and had to use animals instead. Galen would encourage his students to go look at dead gladiators or bodies that washed up in order to get better acquainted with
28220-521: Was shorter in stature than the people of pre-Roman societies of Italy and the post-Roman societies of the Middle Ages. The view of historian Kyle Harper is that "not for the last time in history, a precocious leap forward in social development brought biological reverses". This decline in average height during the Roman era may reflect the stresses of urbanization, warfare, and economic inequality. Despite increasing development, average height did not increase in Europe between 1000 and 1800, while it increased in
28390-550: Was the armed forces deployed by the Romans throughout the duration of Ancient Rome , from the Roman Kingdom (753 BC–509 BC) to the Roman Republic (509 BC–27 BC) and the Roman Empire (27 BC–476 AD), and its medieval continuation, the Eastern Roman Empire . It is thus a term that may span approximately 2,206 years (753 BC–1453 AD), during which the Roman armed forces underwent numerous permutations in size , composition, organisation, equipment and tactics, while conserving
28560-419: Was the basis of his criticism of the doctors who proceeded alogos and askeptos." However, Eudemus warned Galen that engaging in conflict with these physicians could lead to his assassination. "Eudemus said this, and more to the same effect; he added that if they were not able to harm me by unscrupulous conduct they would proceed to attempts at poisoning. Among other things he told me that, some ten years before,
28730-458: Was the heart and the arteries, which Galen believed to be responsible for providing life-giving energy. The last theorized system was the liver and veins, which Galen theorized were responsible for nutrition and growth. Galen also theorized that blood was made in the liver and sent out around the body. One of Galen's major works, On the Doctrines of Hippocrates and Plato , sought to demonstrate
28900-466: Was unhealthy. About 20 percent of the population—a large percentage by ancient standards—lived in one of hundreds of cities; Rome, with a population estimated at one million, being the largest. The cities were a "demographic sink" even in the best of times. The death rate exceeded the birth rates and a constant in-migration of new residents was necessary to maintain the urban population. As perhaps more than one-half of children died before reaching adulthood,
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