A JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY BOOK REVIEW

movement It has been a good decade or so for the great classical physician Galen (AD 128–c.210). His long career and copious writings have been scrutinized as never before, not just for his many medical contributions, but also his philosophy and culture, and his politics and values. His experience and outlook as a Greek doctor from Pergamum in Asia Minor (Bergama in modern Turkey), who jour-neyed around the eastern Mediterranean in pursuit of the best medical education he could find, and eventually settled in the imperial metropolis—Rome—has proven a rich resource for those interested in a whole range of historical topics (e.g. Gill et al., 2009). Galen lived and worked, practiced and taught, constructed, promulgated and defended his system of medicine right at the heart of a flourishing Roman Empire. He consorted with senators and emperors, curing and educating them and their families; h