Galen and Roman Medicine: or can a Greek become a Latin?

The history of medicine in the Roman world has frequently been viewed from the perspective of the Elder Pliny (ca. AD 70), who described an invasion of incompetent, worthless charlatans from Greece and beyond. This extreme viewpoint was not shared by many of the inhabitants of Italy and the Western provinces, who welcomed these outsiders. This paper looks at the reasons why Greek-speaking doctors migrated westwards, and, through the writings of their most famous representative, Galen of Pergamum (127-216), how they became integrated into a Latin society.