Later Years: AD 162–217
Galen went to Rome in 162 AD and made his mark as a practicing physician. His impatience brought him into conflict with other doctors and he felt menaced by them. His demonstrations there antagonized the less able and original physicians in the city. They plotted against him and he feared he might be driven away or poisoned so he left the city.
Rome then engaged in the foreign wars in 161 AD. Marcus Aurelius and his colleague Lucius Verus were in the north fighting the Marcomanni. During the autumn of 169 AD when Roman troops were returning to Aquileia, the great plague broke out and the emperor summoned Galen back to Rome. He was ordered to accompany Marcus and Verus to Germany as the court physician. In the following spring Marcus was persuaded to release Galen after receiving a report that Asclepius was against the project. He was left behind to act as physician to the imperial heir Commodus. It was here in court that Galen wrote extensively on medical subjects. Ironically, Lucius Verus died in 169, and Marcus Aurelius himself died in 180, both victims of the plague.
Galen was the physician to Commodus for much of the emperor’s life and treated his common illnesses. According to Dio Cassius 72.14.3–4, in about 189 AD, under Commodus’ reign, a pestilence occurred, the largest of which he had knowledge, in which 2,000 people died in Rome each day. It is most likely that this was the same plague that struck Rome during Marcus Aurelius’ reign.
Galen became physician to Septimius Severus during his reign in Rome. Galen compliments Severus and Caracalla on keeping a supply of drugs for their friends and mentions three cases in which they had been of use in 198 AD.
Read more about this topic: Galen