Editing Galen (section)

===Late antiquity===
[[File:Galenosgruppe (Wiener Dioskurides).jpg|thumb|upright=.9|A group of physicians in an image from the [[Vienna Dioscurides]]; Galen is depicted top center.]]

In his time, Galen's reputation as both physician and philosopher was legendary,<ref name="nutton84a">Nutton V. "Galen in the eyes of his contemporaries". ''BHM'' 58(3) fall 1984 315–24</ref> 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 the Greek world confirm this including [[Theodotus of Byzantium|Theodotus the Shoemaker]], [[Athenaeus]] and [[Alexander of Aphrodisias]]. The 7th-century poet [[George Pisida|George of Pisida]] went so far as to refer to Christ as a second and neglected Galen.<ref>George of Pisida. Hexameron 1.1588f</ref> 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.<ref name="brock">Arthur John Brock (translator), ''Introduction. Galen. On the Natural Faculties''. Edinburgh 1916</ref> A few centuries after Galen, [[Palladius (physician)|Palladius Iatrosophista]] stated in his commentary on Hippocrates that Hippocrates sowed and Galen reaped.

Galen summarized and synthesized 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.<ref name="nutton84"/> Yet the full importance of his contributions was not appreciated until long after his death.<ref name="brock"/> 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.<ref name="nutton84"/>

After the collapse of the Western Empire 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 the apostate|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 the "medical refrigerators of antiquity".<ref name="brock"/><ref name="nutton84"/> 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''.<ref>Temkin O. Studies on late Alexandrian medicine. Bull Hist Med 3: 405–30, 1935</ref> 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.<ref name="nutton84"/>

Greek medicine 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 language|Syriac]] and [[Arabic]]. From then on, Galen and the Greek medical tradition in general became assimilated into the medieval and early modern Islamic Middle East.<ref name="brock"/> [[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]].<ref>Translated works listed in Alphonse Mingana (ed.); Job of Edessa, [https://rucore.libraries.rutgers.edu/rutgers-lib/42928 ''Encyclopaedia of Philosophical and Natural Sciences as Taught in Baghdad about A.D. 817, or Book of Treasures''] (W. Hefer & Sons, 1935), p. xix.</ref>