Galen: Coward or Misjudged?

[guy]

Galen, Roman Empire's famous Greek physician from Pergamon, departed Rome in 166 AD at the outbreak of the Antonine plague. Many critics feel that this was an act of cowardice.

Galen's own words that he wrote thirty years after leaving Rome helped to give this impression: "... having sojourned three years in Rome, the great pest beginning, I hastily set out from the city, going eagerly to my native country [Pergamon]."

His own words were later interpreted by some critics to suggest that he cowardly ran away from the epidemic.

I recently read an article by Joseph Walsh, MD, "Refutation of the Charges of Cowardice Made against Galen," Annals of Medical History, 3 (1931), 195-208. Walsh presents a good explanation for his departure, exonerating him from the charges of cowardice.

Walsh makes several good points. First, Galen was a pious Pagan and an ardent devotee of Aesculapius (god of medicine and healing as well as the patron of the ancient guild of doctors). Walsh writes, "In his Pagan piety, Galen saw the hand of Aesculapius helping him over rough and perplexing places many times." His stoic training would have prepared him to bravely face the challenges and potential death the plague would have brought. According to Walsh, Galen was a very dedicated physician who would have placed professionalism and patients' care above his own well-being and safety.

Galen went to Rome in 162. While in Rome, his reputation as a respected physician, philosopher, anatomist, and physiologist grew. According to Walsh, Galen had many rivals among the other medical men in Rome. He was despised by others of the medical community of Rome for his criticism of their theories and methods since Galen based his practice on reason and experience, thus challenging older beliefs based on superstition and tradition. They were jealous of his newly acquired fame and success. Possibly, even his life was threatened. Walsh states, "... he looked forward day after day to the time when he could end the bickering he detested and return to the research he loved so much."

Walsh adds that Galen's earlier writings from only thirteen years after his departure from Rome seem to further exonerate his motives. Galen wrote, "When I understood the war [with Parthia] was ended, I set out immediately from Rome. Not long after, Lucius [Verus] returned."  Verus didn't return to Rome until March 166. The plague didn't break out in Rome until the spring of 166 and the spring of 167, sometime after Verus had returned. Galen, therefore, left before the plague broke out in Rome.

He, therefore, left the relative safety of Rome (which hadn't been devastated by the plague, yet) for regions where the plague was already in full force. This is hardly the act of a coward.

Finally, he was summoned by the Emperor Marcus Aurelius two years later and bravely joined him on the plague ravaged battle frontier. He then returned with the Emperor's son, Commodus, to the then plague-ridden Rome to take care of the young prince. According to Walsh, "No ruler in history surpasses Marcus Aurelius in love of virtue, resolute in courage and devotion to duty. It is unthinkable that he would engage as a caretaker for his beloved son a physician so deficient in character and philosophical stoicism as to prove a deserter in time of danger."

Maybe history has judged Galen wrongly and too harshly.

Edited March 19, 2022 by guy

[ASCLEPIADES]

Galen, Roman Empire