Editing Galen (section)

===Rome===
[[File:Claudius Galenus (1906) - Veloso Salgado.png|thumb|upright=.9|Galen dissecting a monkey, as imagined by [[Veloso Salgado]] in 1906]]

Galen went to [[Ancient Rome|Rome]] in 162 and made his mark as a practicing physician. His public demonstrations and impatience with alternative views on medicine brought him into conflict with other doctors practicing in the city.<ref name=":0"/> When the [[Peripatetic school|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".<ref>Luis Garcia-Ballester, 2002, Galen and Galenism, Burlington: Ashgate-Variorum, p. 1641</ref> He wrote: "I return to the case of Eudemus. He was thoroughly attacked by the three attacks of quartan ague, and the doctors had given him up, as it was now mid-winter."<ref>Arthur John Brock, 1929, ''Greek Medicine'', London: J. M. Dent and Sons, Ltd., p. 207.</ref> Some Roman physicians criticized Galen for his use of the [[prognosis]] in his treatment of Eudemus. This practice conflicted with the then-current [[Standard treatment|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 was the basis of his criticism of the doctors who proceeded alogos and askeptos.<ref>Luis Garcia-Ballester, 2002, Galen and Galenism, Burlington: Ashgate-Variorum, p. 1663</ref>

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, 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."<ref>Arthur John Brock, 1929, ''Greek Medicine'', London: J. M. Dent and Sons, Ltd., p. 212.</ref> When Galen's animosity with the Roman medical practitioners became serious, he feared he might be exiled or poisoned, so he left the city.<ref name="Eichholz">D.E. Eichholz, 1951, ''Galen and His Environment, Greece & Rome'' 20 no. 59, Cambridge University Press, pp. 60–71</ref>

Rome was engaged in foreign wars in 161; [[Marcus Aurelius]] and his then co-Emperor and adoptive brother [[Lucius Verus]] were in the north fighting the [[Marcomanni]].<ref>Elizabeth C. Evans, 1956, ''Galen the Physician as Physiognomist'', American Philological Association</ref> 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 was persuaded to release Galen after receiving a report that [[Asclepius]] was against the project.<ref name="Littman">R. J. Littman and M. L. Littman, 1973 Galen and the Antonine Plague, The American Journal of Philology 94 no. 3, pp. 243–255</ref> 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, 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.<ref name="Littman"/> 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.<ref name=Eichholz/>