Galen, Three Treatises

The aim of this book is to make three of the Roman physician Galen's shorter works (On my Own Books, On the Order of my Own Books, and That the Best Physician is also a Philosopher) accessible to intermediate students of Ancient Greek. The running vocabulary and grammatical commentary are meant to provide everything necessary to read each page. Although Galen can be a little difficult at times, his language gets easier and more predictable with practice, and these three works are a great introduction to this fascinating figure. They are not strictly speaking medical works, but reflections on his own work and thought that throw extraordinary light on the relationship of the medical profession in antiquity to wider currents of thought in the brilliant period of Greek literature known as the "second sophistic."