Galen of Pergamon

Hello! My name is Galen, and I want to tell you my story. I was born in the year 129 CE in a beautiful Greek city called Pergamon, which was part of the mighty Roman Empire. My father, Nicon, was a brilliant architect who taught me about math and philosophy. He always wanted me to learn as much as I could. One night, he had a dream that the god of healing, Asclepius, told him I should become a doctor. From that day on, my path was set!

To become the best doctor I could be, I knew I had to travel and learn from many great teachers. Around the year 145 CE, when I was a teenager, I began my journeys. I studied in cities like Smyrna and Corinth. I even sailed to the famous city of Alexandria in Egypt, which had the greatest library in the world. In those days, it was not allowed to study the inside of human bodies. So, to learn about anatomy, I carefully studied animals, especially Barbary apes, because their bodies were very similar to ours. This helped me understand where muscles, bones, and nerves were supposed to go.

Around the year 157 CE, I returned to my hometown of Pergamon and got a very exciting job: I became the physician for the gladiators! These strong fighters were often injured in their contests, and it was my job to patch them up. This was the best school a doctor could ask for! By treating their wounds, I could see firsthand how muscles worked and how nerves sent messages from the brain. I learned so much about surgery and how to help the body heal. Very few of the gladiators under my care passed away from their wounds, which made me very proud.

My skills became well-known, and in 162 CE, I decided to move to the biggest city in the world: Rome! It was a busy, bustling place filled with important people. To show everyone what I knew, I would hold public lessons and demonstrations. I could show how a pig's squeal was controlled by a certain nerve, which was my way of proving that the brain, not the heart, controlled the body. My fame grew, and soon I was invited to be the personal doctor for the most powerful man in the world, the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, around the year 169 CE. It was a great honor.

I wasn't just a doctor; I was also a scientist and a writer. I was endlessly curious. I proved that arteries are filled with blood, not air, which was a huge discovery! I also mapped out the nervous system and figured out how the kidneys and bladder work. I wanted to make sure this knowledge wasn't lost, so I wrote everything down. I wrote hundreds and hundreds of books and scrolls, filling them with everything I had learned about medicine, anatomy, and even philosophy. I wanted to help doctors for many years to come.

I lived a long and full life, to be about 87 years old, passing away around the year 216 CE. My work didn't end when my life did. The books I wrote became the main medical textbooks for doctors across Europe and the Middle East for over 1,300 years! My curiosity about how our amazing bodies work helped shape the future of medicine, and I hope my story inspires you to always ask questions and never stop learning.