Who is the most famous physician of Roman times?
– Answer: b) Galen Galen is regarded as the top physician in Roman times. Galen (130 to 210 AD) was born in the Greek city of Pergamum (modern-day Turkey), the son of a wealthy architect. He trained as a physician in Alexandria, Egypt, and at the age of 27 began working as a physician in a gladiator school for three or four years. During this time he gained experience in trauma and wound treatment. He later regarded wounds as “windows into the body”. He also wrote that no gladiator under his care ever lost his life from a wound sustained in the arena. Galen performed many audacious operations that were not again used for almost two millennia, including brain and eye surgery. To perform cataract surgery, Galen would insert a long needle-like instrument into the eye behind the lens, and then pull it back slightly and remove the cataract. In 162 Galen moved to Rome where he wrote extensively, lectured and publicly demonstrated his knowledge of anatomy. He gained a reputation as an experie
