1 Moralia 122B–E. See Boulogne (1996).

2 Nutton (2009, 24).

3 On Galen’s pedagogical works, see especially Boudon (1994).

4 On medicine and Roman high society, see Mattern (2008a, 21–27), and more recently Johnson (2010, chapter 5). The classic essay is still Bowersock (1969, chapter 5, “The Prestige of Galen”). For the legal status of known medical practitioners at Rome in tabulated form, see Korpela (1987, 110–11).

5 Biographical details on Boethus are collected in Halfmann (1979, no. 95), but do not exceed what Galen tells us himself; see Nutton (1979, 164). Boethus’s native city: Anat. Admin. 1.1 (2.215K). His and Galen’s mutual friendship with Eudemus: Praecog. 2 (14.612K). Ex-consul: ibid. and Libr. Propr. 1 (19.13K). Aristotelian philosopher: Praecog. 5 (14.627K) and Libr. Propr. 1 (19.13K). His friendship with Eudemus and with Alexander the Peripatetic: Anat. Admin. 1.1 (2.218K); Praecog. 5 (14.627K).

6 Praecog. 2 (14.612K) on Paulus, see Nutton (1979, ad loc., 163–64). Galen mentions Sergius Paulus as one of Boethus’s companions also in Anat. Admin. 1.1 (2.217–18K).

7 Praecog. 2 (14.613K). See Nutton (1979, 166–67).

8 Mattern (2008a, 20 with n. 61).

9 Boudon-Millot (2007a, 188 n. 5); Schlange-Schöningen (2003, 204 n. 136).

10 Ven. Sect. Eras. Rom. 1 (11.194–95K); here Galen specifically exonerates Teuthras from blame, but this confirms that it was something that had occurred to him. “Venomous:” see Brain (1986, 103).

11 For a concise recent discussion of Galen’s relationship to Aristotle, see van der Eijk (2009, 261–81). See also Rocca (2003, chapter 2).

12 On Demetrius and Adrian, see Nutton (1979, 190–91).

13 Anat. Admin. 8.4 (2.669K); Usu Part. 7.14 (3.576–77K); Loc. Affect. 1.6 (8.53–54K).

14 Nutton (1984b: 315–24; 1979, 189); Temkin (1973, 74–76).

15 Bailey et al. (1999); Goudsmit and Brandon-Jones (1999, 2000). Two guenons were also preserved at the Saqqara catacombs. A colony of barbary macaques lives wild in Gibraltar today, but they were apparently not native to Europe in Greco-Roman antiquity (Delson 1980, 18, 25). Hamadryas baboons, olive baboons, green monkeys, and patas monkeys are attested in Dynastic Egyptian art and in Late Period cemeteries (Osborn with Osbornová 1998, 32–42).

16 Anat. Admin. 11.4 (108 Simon). See Sandys-Winsch (2009), in which Richard Dawkins observes the dissection of the recurrent laryngeal nerves of a giraffe and explains their evolution.

17 Fowler and Mikota (2006, 317). On otters: Egerbacher, Weber, and Hauer (2000, 485–91).

18 Anat. Admin. 12.6 (151–54 Simon); cf. Usu Part. 6.21 (3.510K).

19 The etymology of the term “Caesarian” is murky but most likely relates to the Latin verb caedere, “to cut.” Pliny the Elder writes that an ancestor of Julius Caesar’s was born this way and that this is the origin of the cognomen Caesar (Naturalis historia 7.47), but this story may not be true. The Caesarian section was probably not a survivable operation until the nineteenth century, and before this was performed only as a last-ditch effort to save the fetus after the mother’s death. See Todman (2007).

20 Tongs: Anat. Admin. 7.13 (2.635–36K); Plac. Hipp. Plat. 1.5, 5.186K.

21 Anat. Admin. 14.9 (229–30 Simon), tr. Duckworth. Young animals: Anat. Admin. 7.12 (2.627–28K), 7.13 (2.635–36K); also 8.8 (2.690K). Old animals: Anat. Admin. 5.4 (2.500K), 8.3 (2.661K). Starving: Anat. Admin. 11.3 (94 Simon). Drowning and strangling: Anat. Admin. 1.3 (2.233K), 8.10 (2.701–2K), 13.4 (191 Simon). Butcher: Anat. Admin. 9.1 (2.708K), 14.6 (259 Simon).

22 Anat. Admin. 9.10 (18 Simon); also 11.4 (106–7 Simon).

23 Usu Part. 14.4 (4.150K); Sem. 2.5 (4.634K).

24 Uterus: Usu Part. 14.4 (4.153K); Sem. 2.5 (4.631K); Loc. Affect. 6.5 (8.436–37K). Retiform plexus: Usu Part. 2.10–11 (3.696–97K); cf. Rocca (2003, 202–19; 2008, 253–54).

25 An Arter. Sang. 4 (4.733–34K); Anat. Admin. 7.16 (2.646–49K).

26 English translations of Galen’s four treatises On the Usefulness of Respiration, Whether the Arteries Naturally Contain Blood, On the Usefulness of the Pulse, and the extant summary of On the Causes of Respiration, with a succinct discussion of Galen’s theory of respiration and its place in ancient medical thought, are available in Furley and Wilkie (1984).

27 In fact Plato says nothing specific about the heart or liver, although Aristotle and the Stoics identified the heart as the seat of reason. Cf. Donini (2008). On Galen’s ideas of the soul, its anatomy, and its relationship to the body, see Gill (2010, chapter 3); Tieleman (2003); von Staden (2000); and Hankinson (1991b).

28 For a brief introduction to Galenic physiology, see Debru (2008). The most important treatises are On the Usefulness of the Parts, On the Doctrines of Hippocrates and Plato, On the Natural Faculties, and On the Usefulness of Respiration. All are available in English translation: May (1968); de Lacy (1980–84); Brock (1916); Furley and Wilkie (1984, 71–134).

29 On the performative aspects of Galen’s demonstrations and their relationship to the Second Sophistic, see Gleason (2009); von Staden (1997a); Debru (1996); von Staden (1995). On beast hunts, see Gleason (2009, 108–110); Wiedemann (1992, 55–67).

30 Anat. Admin. 7.13 (2.635–36K); cf. Gleason (2009, 93–94).

31 See Mattern (2008a, 14–21).

32 Mattern (2008a, 9–11); see especially Diff. Puls. 2.3 (8.571–74K) and Meth. Med. 2.5 (10.112–14K).

33 E.g., Diff. Puls. 1.1 (8.484–95K), 2.3 (8.571–74K), 3.3 (8.653–57K).

34 Libr. Propr. 2 (19.17K); Anat. Admin. 1.1 (2.217K).

35 On the Anatomy of the Veins and Arteries was also composed as memoranda of “things which you [the addressed, Antisthenes] saw demonstrated on the body of a monkey” (1, 2.779K).

36 “Passionate lover”: Anat. Admin. 1.1 (2.214–15K). Works dedicated to Boethus: Anat. Admin. 1.1 (2.215, 216–17K); Praecog. 5 (14.630K); Libr. Propr. 1 (19.13, 15–16K). Perished: Anat. Admin. 1.1 (2.216K). Possibly they were destroyed by fire, but the reference to fire in Kühn’s edition is a Renaissance gloss; Galen did not say how his copy was destroyed. See Boudon-Millot (2007a, CI). On the chronology of On Anatomical Procedures, see Bardong (1942, 631–32) for the date of composition (perhaps in three stages over decades) of the fifteen books of this work.

37 At 14.637K Galen calls the mother “the woman,” gyne, which could also mean “the wife,” but the term is nonspecific (Galen does not write “his [Boethus’s] woman”). Roman law would later forbid keeping a (free or freed) concubine concurrently with a wife (Codex Justinianus 5.26.1, 7.15.3.2), but it is uncertain when this became illegal or uncustomary. Sex and breeding with one’s slaves was normal in all time periods, and slave harems are well attested for the Roman aristocracy. These offspring were not normally openly acknowledged as the master’s children, though some were well cared for and well-educated, freed early, and left property, and Roman law recognized that slaves were often the “natural sons” of their masters. See Betzig (1992).

38 For the differential diagnosis, see Nutton (1979, 203).

39 On fee vs. prize, see Mattern (2008a, 4 n. 10 and 83). On Galen’s claim about fees, see Meyerhof (1929, 84).

40 von Staden (2009); Libr. Propr. 9 (19.34–35K). Extant, or mostly extant, treatises dating to this period are Galen’s commentaries on the Aphorisms, on Prognostic, on On Joints, on Fractures, on On Regimen in Acute Diseases, and on book I of the Epidemics.

41 Libr. Propr. 1 (19.15–16K), 2 (19.19–20K); Anat. Admin. 1.1 (2.216–17K); Ilberg (1889, 218–19).

42 See von Staden (1997b); Mattern (2008a, 14–21).

43 On the intended audience for Usu Part. (doctors and philosophers), Anat. Admin. 2.3 (2.291K); Usu Part. 17.1 (4.360–61K). On teleology and Aristotle, see Hankinson (2008b, 225–36; 1994a, b; 1989). On Galenic theology and religious views more generally, see Frede (2003). On Galen’s Demiurge (below), see Flemming (2008). For an interesting discussion of the relationship between teleology and anatomy in Greek culture, see Kuriyama (1999, 116–29).

44 Phidias: Usu Part. 3.10 (3.239K). Prometheus: Usu Part. 10.9 (3.801–2K), 12.11 (4.45K). Phaethon: Usu Part. 17.1 (4.361K).

45 On the Jewish community at Rome, see Cappelletti (2006); Gruen (2002, chapter 1).

46 Martyrdoms: Schlange-Schöningen (2003, 251). On the Christian community in Rome in Galen’s time, see Lane Fox (1986, 268–69); Frend (1965, 121–26, 234–38).

47 Walzer (1949, 77); Nutton (1984b, 316–17); Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 5.28.13–14; Epiphanius, Adversos Haereses 54.3.1.

48 Usu Part. 10.12 (3.812, 814K), 10.14 (3.835–36K).

49 See von Staden (2003, 31–43).

50 Sect. Intro. (1.66–67K); Comp. Med. Gen. 1.1 (13.366K); Simp. Med. 11.1.34 (12.356–57K).

51 See Harris (2009, 210 n. 520).

52 Simp. Med. 11.1.1 (12.315K); Subfig. Emp. 10 (78–79 Deichgräber).

53 On Galen’s relationship to Asclepius, see especially Schlange-Schöningen (2003, 223–35).

54 Examples come from Dign. Insomn. (6.832–35K). For translation and discussion, Oberhelman (1983). Further on dreams in Galen: Harris (2009, 64, 209–12); von Staden (2003, 21–28); Oberhelman (1993).

55 Divination vs. prognosis, and accusations of divination: e.g., Febr. Diff. 2.7 (7.354K); Syn. Puls. 6 (9.446–47K); Loc. Affect. 3.7 (8.168K), 5.8 (8.362K); Praecog. 1 (14.601–2K), 5 (14.625K). Lowlifes: e.g., Opt. Med. Philosoph. 1 (1.54–55K); Simp. Med. 10.2.6 (12.263K).

56 Simp. Med. 11.1.1 (12.314–15K); Subfig. Emp. 10 (77–78 Deichgräber).

57 On Galen’s views on divination, see von Staden (2003, 26).

58 Simp. Med. 6 proem (11.792–97K), 10.1 (12.251K), 10.2.16 (12.289–90K). See von Staden (2003, 19) for this and what follows.

59 For similar examples of the rationalizing of magical practices and of the semi-magical idea of sympathy in Galen’s pharmacology, see Keyser (1997).

60 Galen, Plac. Propr. 2–3 (172–74 Bouton-Millot and Pietrobelli), 7 (178 Boudon-Millot and Pietrobelli), 11 (182 Boudon-Millot and Pietrobelli); Foet. Form. 6 (4.699–702K); Nutton (1999, 142–44). On Galen’s agnosticism about the soul in the context of debates on its mortality and substance in the ancient philosophical tradition, see von Staden (2000). Nutton’s edition of On My Own Opinions is based mainly on a medieval Latin translation of an Arabic translation, supplemented by fragments and extracts in the original Greek and in Hebrew. It was only very recently that a complete Greek text of On My Own Opinions was discovered in a collection of thirteen Galenic treatises in a monastery in Thessaloniki (see Boudon-Millot and Pietrobelli 2005). It is important to note that the Arabic translation that was the basis for the Latin text censored Galen’s references to the gods in order to downplay his polytheism (Boudon-Millot and Pietrobelli 2005, 192 n. 10).

61 He goes on in this passage to write that he has experienced the “power and providence” of the Dioscuri, the twins Castor and Pollux, at sea. Salvation from shipwreck is a frequently attested intervention of the gods, though healing is by far the most common. See MacMullen (1981, 50 with n. 7).

62 Hipp. 6 Epid. 4.8 (17B.137K). On the obedience of patients, see Mattern (2008a, 145–49).

63 On patronage, see Mattern (2008a, 21–27 and 1999).

64 Anat. Admin. 1.1 (2.215, 217–18K); Libr. Propr. 1 (19.15–16K).

65 Athletes ugly: San. Tuend. 5.3 (6.327K = 5.10, 157 Koch); Adhort. Art. 12 (131–32K). Useless: Bon. Hab. (4.753K, commenting on Plato’s Republic); Thras. Med. Gymn. 45–46 (5.893–94K). Their unbalanced constitution: Adhort. Art. 9–10 (1.20–39K); Bon. Hab. (4.750–56K); Thras. Med. Gymn. (5.806–98K). Athletes and sex: San. Tuend. 6.14 (6.446K); Simp. Med. 9.3.23 (12.232K); Hipp. 3 Epid. 1.4 (17A.520–21K); Loc. Affec. 6.5 (8.451K); Sem. 1.15 (4.571K). Galen’s boast: Thras. Med. Gymn. 46 (5.893–94K). On pensions, see Potter (2012, 279–86). See further discussion in Mattern (2008a, 128–30; 2008b); König (2005, 274–300).

66 On Galen’s house in Campania, see Boudon-Millot and Jouana (2010, xxviii–xxxi).

67 See Mattern (2008a, 52–53); also Richardson (1992), s.v. “Vicus Sandalarius”; and Peter White (2009).

68 On Galen’s terms for children and also on the relationship between pais and “slave,” see Mattern (2008a, 108–9).

69 Pliny, Naturalis historia, 25.150; Dioscorides, Materia medica 4.75. On mandrake as anesthetic, see Ramoutsaki, Askitopoulou, and Konsolaki (2002) and von Hintzenstern (1989); the former article should be used with caution as many of the references to ancient sources are problematic. For a review of the exiguous evidence for anesthesia in Mediterranean antiquity, Nunn (1989). Mandragora in Galen: Temp. 2.2 (1.585K); Meth. Med. 3.2 (10.171K); Simp. Med. 7.12.4 (12.67K); Comp. Med. Loc. 3.1 (12.644K); and many other references. On the dangers of overdose of mandragora (and opium): Comp. Med. Loc. 8.3 (13.157K); also Hipp. Aph. 2.17 (17B.477–78K). Besides Pliny and Dioscorides, the third possible reference to mandrake as surgical anesthesia is in the obscure Herbarium of Apuleius or Pseudo-Apuleius.

70 The story of Maryllus’s slave is told in Plac. Hipp. Plat., Testimonies and Fragments 7 (72–76 de Lacy and 5.181K) and Anat. Admin. 7.12–13 (2.631, 632–33K). The first quotation (“I said that I...”) is Anat. Admin. 7.13 (2.633K); the second quotation (“We saw the heart...”) is Plac. Hipp. Plat., Testimonies and Fragments 7 (74 de Lacy, tr. de Lacy). For slaves as the natural children of their masters, see Betzig (1992).