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Wellsprings
Mind-Benders of Greek & Roman History

The greatest physician of antiquity was the emperor's personal doctor

Galen, whose medical writings would dominate European medicine for over a thousand years, served as personal physician to the philosopher-emperor Marcus Aurelius. Antiquity's most influential doctor and its most famous Stoic ruler shared a court.

How we know

Galen c. 129–c. 216 CE; Marcus Aurelius 121–180 CE; Galen joined the imperial court c. 168–169 CE.

One of many fact-checked wonders across eight traditions at The Spring of Wisdom.