"Claude Galien". Lithograph by Pierre Roche Vigneron. (Paris: Lith de Gregoire et Deneux, ca. 1865)

Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus (b. 129 AD, d. circa 200 AD), better known as Galen of Pergamon (modern-day Bergama, Turkey), was a prominent Roman (of Greek ethnicity) physician, surgeon and philosopher.^[1][2][3] Arguably the most accomplished of all medical researchers of antiquity, Galen contributed greatly to the understanding of numerous scientific disciplines, including anatomy,^[4] physiology, pathology,^[5] pharmacology,^[6] and neurology, as well as philosophy^[7] and logic.

The son of Aelius Nicon, a wealthy architect with scholarly interests, Galen received a comprehensive education that prepared him for a successful career as a physician and philosopher. He traveled extensively, exposing himself to a wide variety of medical theories and discoveries before settling in Rome, where he served prominent members of Roman society and eventually was given the position of personal physician to several emperors.

Galen's understanding of anatomy and medicine was principally influenced by the then-current theory of humorism, as advanced by many ancient Greek physicians such as Hippocrates. His theories dominated and influenced Western medical science for nearly two millennia. His anatomical reports, based mainly on dissection of monkeys and pigs, remained uncontested until 1543, when printed descriptions and illustrations of human dissections were published in the seminal work De humani corporis fabrica by Andreas Vesalius^[8][9] where Galen's physiological theory was accommodated to these new observations.^[10] Galen's theory of the physiology of the circulatory system endured until 1628, when William Harvey published his treatise entitled De motu cordis, in which he established that blood circulates, with the heart acting as a pump.^[11][12] Medical students continued to study Galen's writings until well into the 19th century. Galen conducted many nerve ligation experiments that supported the theory, which is still accepted today, that the brain controls all the motions of the muscles by means of the cranial and peripheral nervous systems.^[13]

Galen saw himself as both a physician and a philosopher, as he wrote in his treatise entitled That the Best Physician is also a Philosopher.^[14][15][16] Galen was very interested in the debate between the rationalist and empiricist medical sects,^[17] and his use of direct observation, dissection and vivisection represents a complex middle ground between the extremes of those two viewpoints.^[18] Many of his works have been preserved and/or translated from the original Greek, although many were destroyed and some credited to him are believed to be spurious. Although there is some debate over the date of his death, he was no younger than seventy when he died.

Early life: AD 129–161[link]

Galen's name Greek: Γαληνός, Galēnos comes from the adjective "γαληνός", "calm".^[19]

Galen describes his early life in On the affections of the mind. He was born in September 129 AD;^[3] his father, Aelius Nicon, was a wealthy patrician, an architect and builder, with eclectic interests including philosophy, mathematics, logic, astronomy, agriculture and literature. Galen describes his father as a "highly amiable, just, good and benevolent man". At that time Pergamon was a major cultural and intellectual centre, noted for its library (Eumenes II), second only to that in Alexandria,^[5][20] and attracted both Stoic and Platonic philosophers, to whom Galen was exposed at age 14. His studies also took in each of the principal philosophical systems of the time, including Aristotelian and Epicurean. His father had planned a traditional career for Galen in philosophy or politics and took care to expose him to literary and philosophical influences. However, Galen states that in around 145 AD his father had a dream in which the god Asclepius (Aesculapius) appeared and commanded Nicon to send his son to study medicine. Again, no expense was spared, and following his earlier liberal education, at 16 he began studies at the prestigious local sanctuary or Asclepieum dedicated to Asclepius, god of medicine, as a θεραπευτής (therapeutes, or attendant) for four years. There he came under the influence of men like Aeschrion of Pergamon, Stratonicus and Satyrus. Asclepiea functioned as spas or sanitoria to which the sick would come to seek the ministrations of the priesthood. The temple at Pergamon was eagerly sought by Romans in search of a cure. It was also the haunt of notable people such as Claudius Charax the historian, Aelius Aristides the orator, Polemo the sophist, and Cuspius Rufinus the Consul.^[3]

In 148, when he was 19, his father died, leaving him independently wealthy. He then followed the advice he found in Hippocrates' teaching^[21] and travelled and studied widely including such destinations as Smyrna (now Izmir), Corinth, Crete, Cilicia (now Çukurova), Cyprus, and finally the great medical school of Alexandria, exposing himself to the various schools of thought in medicine. In 157, aged 28, he returned to Pergamon as physician to the gladiators of the High Priest of Asia, one of the most influential and wealthiest men in Asia. Galen claims that the High Priest chose him over other physicians after he eviscerated an ape and challenged other physicians to repair the damage. When they refused, Galen performed the surgery himself and in so doing won the favor of the High Priest of Asia. Over his four years there he learnt the importance of diet, fitness, hygiene and preventive measures, as well as living anatomy, and the treatment of fractures and severe trauma, referring to their wounds as "windows into the body". Only five deaths occurred while he held the post, compared to sixty in his predecessor's time, a result which is generally ascribed to the attention he paid to their wounds. At the same time he pursued studies in theoretical medicine and philosophy.^{[3][22][23][24]}

Later years: AD 162–217[link]

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.^[25]

Rome then engaged in the foreign wars in 161 AD. Marcus Aurelius and his colleague Lucius Verus were in the north fighting the Marcomanni.^[26] 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.^[27] 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.^[27]

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.^[25]

The Antonine Plague[link]

The Antonine Plague was named after Marcus Aurelius’ family name of Antoninus. It was also known as the Plague of Galen and holds an important place in medicinal history because of its association with Galen. Galen had first hand knowledge of the disease. He was in Rome when it struck in 166 AD, and was also present in the winter of 168–69 during an outbreak among troops stationed at Aquileia. He had experience with the epidemic, referring to it as very long lasting, and describes its symptoms and his treatment of it. Unfortunately, his references to the plague are scattered and brief. Galen was not trying to present a description of the disease so that it could be recognized in future generations; he was more interested in the treatment and physical effects of the disease. For example, in his writings about a young man afflicted with the plague, he concentrated on the treatment of internal and external ulcerations.^[27] According to Niebuhr "this pestilence must have raged with incredible fury; it carried off innumerable victims. The ancient world never recovered from the blow inflected upon it by the plague which visited it in the reign of M. Aurelius." The mortality rate of the plague was 7–10 percent; the outbreak in 165–6–168 would have caused approximately 3.5 to 5 million deaths. Otto Seek believes that over half the population of the empire perished. J. F. Gilliam believes that the Antonine plague probably caused more deaths than any other epidemic during the empire before the mid-3rd century.^[27] It is believed that the Antonine Plague was smallpox, because though his description is incomplete, Galen gave enough information to enable a firm identification of the disease.

Galen notes that the exanthema covered the victim’s entire body and was usually black. The exanthem became rough and scabby where there was no ulceration. He states that those who were going to survive developed a black exanthem. According to Galen, it was black because of a remnant of blood putrefied in a fever blister that was pustular. His writings state that raised blisters were present in the Antonine plague, usually in the form of a blistery rash. Galen states that the skin rash was close to the one Thucydides described.^[27] Galen describes symptoms of the alimentary tract via a patient’s diarrhea and stools. If the stool was very black, the patient died. He says that the amount of black stools varied. It depended on the severity of the intestinal lesions. He observes that in cases where the stool was not black, the black exanthum appeared.^[27] Galen describes the symptoms of fever, vomiting, fetid breath, catarrh, cough and ulceration of the larynx and trachea.^[27]

Eudemus[link]

When Peripatetic philosopher Eudemus became ill with Quartan fever, Galen felt obliged to treat him "since he was my teacher and I happened to live nearby."^[28] Galen wrote: "I return to the case of Eudemus. He was thoroughly attacked by the three attacks of quartan ague, and the doctors had given him up, as it was now mid-winter." ^[29] Some Roman physicians criticized Galen for his use of the prognosis in his treatment of Eudemus. This practice conflicted with the then-current standard of care, which relied upon divination and mysticism. Galen retaliated against his detractors by defending his own methods. Garcia-Ballester quotes Galen as saying: "In order to diagnose, one must observe and reason. This was the basis of his criticism of the doctors who proceeded alogos and askeptos." ^[30] However, Eudemus warned Galen that engaging in conflict with these physicians could lead to his assassination. "Eudemus said this, and more to the same effect; he added that if they were not able to harm me by unscrupulous conduct they would proceed to attempts at poisoning. Among other things he told me that, some ten years before, a young man had come to the city and had given, like me practical demonstrations of the resources of our art; this young man was put to death by poison, together with two servants who accompanied him."^[31]

Garcia-Ballester says the following of Galen’s use of prognosis: "In modern medicine, we are used to distinguishing between the diagnostic judgment (the scientific knowledge of what a patient has) and the prognostic judgment (the conjecture about what will happen to him.) Galen, like the Hippocratics, was not. For him, to understand a clinical case technically, ‘to diagnose’, was among other things, to know with greater or lesser certainty the outcome fore the patient, ‘to prognosticate’. Prognosis, then, is one of the essential problems and most important objectives of Galenic diagnosis. Galen was concerned to distinguish it from divination or prophecy, both to improve diagnosis technically and to enhance the physician’s reputation."^[32]

Death[link]

The 11th-century Suda lexicon states that Galen died at the age of 70, therefore about the year 199. However, there is a reference in Galen's treatise "On Theriac to Piso" (which may however be spurious) to events of 204. There are also statements in Arabic sources that he died at 87, after 17 years studying medicine and 70 practicing it, therefore about 217. Nutton^[33] believes that "On Theriac to Piso" is genuine, the Arabic sources are correct and that the Suda has erroneously interpreted the 70 years of Galen's career in the Arabic tradition as referring to his whole lifespan. Boudon-Millot^[34] more or less concurs and favours a date of 216.

Contributions to medicine[link]

Galen contributed a substantial amount to the Hippocratic understanding of pathology. Under Hippocrates’ bodily humors theory, differences in human moods come as a consequence of imbalances in one of the four bodily fluids: blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. Galen promoted this theory and the typology of human temperaments. An imbalance of each humor corresponded with a particular human temperament (blood-sanguine, black bile-melancholic, yellow bile-choleric, and phlegm-phlegmatic). Individuals with sanguine temperaments are extroverted and social. Choleric people have energy, passion and charisma. Melancholics are creative, kind and considerate. Phlegmatic temperaments are characterized by dependability, kindness, and affection.^[35]

Galen’s principal interest was in human anatomy, but Roman law had prohibited the dissection of human cadavers since about 150 BC.^[36] Because of this restriction, Galen performed anatomical dissections on living (vivisection) and dead animals, mostly focusing on pigs and primates.^[5] This work turned out to be particularly useful because in most cases, the anatomical structures of these animals closely mirror those of humans. Galen clarified the anatomy of the trachea and was the first to demonstrate that the larynx generates the voice.^[37][38] Galen may have understood the importance of artificial ventilation, because in one of his experiments he used bellows to inflate the lungs of a dead animal.^[39][40]

Among Galen’s major contributions to medicine was his work on the circulatory system. He was the first to recognize that there were distinct differences between venous (dark) and arterial (bright) blood. Although his many anatomical experiments on animal models led him to a more complete understanding of the circulatory system, nervous system, respiratory system and other structures, his work was not without scientific inaccuracies.^[7] Galen believed that the circulatory system consisted of two separate one-way systems of distribution, rather than a single unified system of circulation. His understanding was that venous blood was generated in the liver, from where it was distributed and consumed by all organs of the body. He posited that arterial blood originated in the heart, from where it was distributed and consumed by all organs of the body. The blood was then regenerated in either the liver or the heart, completing the cycle.^[35] Galen also believed in the existence of a group of blood vessels he called the rete mirabile, near the back of the human brain.^[35] Both of these theories of the circulation of blood were later shown to be incorrect.^[12]

In his work De motu musculorum, Galen explained the difference between motor and sensory nerves, discussed the concept of muscle tone and explained the difference between agonists and antagonists.

Galen was also a highly skilled surgeon, and he performed surgical operations on human patients. Many of the procedures and techniques that he utilized would not be used again for centuries. Of particular note are procedures that Galen performed on patients’ brains and eyes.^[7] In order to correct cataracts in patients, Galen performed an operation that was similar to what is performed by contemporary ophthalmologists. Using a needle-shaped instrument, Galen attempted to remove the cataract from behind the lens of the eye.^[41]

At first reluctantly, but then with increasing vigour, Galen promoted Hippocratic teaching, including venesection and bloodletting, then unknown in Rome. This was sharply criticised by the Erasistrateans, who predicted dire outcomes, believing that it was not blood but pneuma that flowed in the veins. Galen, however, staunchly defended venesection in his three books on the subject,^[42] and in his demonstrations and public disputations.

Contributions to philosophy[link]

Although the main focus of his work was on medicine, anatomy, and physiology, Galen also wrote about logic and philosophy. His writings were influenced by earlier Greek and Roman thinkers, including Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics. Galen was concerned to combine philosophical thought with medical practice, as in his brief work That the Best Physician is also a Philosopher. He took aspects from each group and combined them with his original thought. He regarded medicine as an interdisciplinary field that was best practiced by utilizing theory, observation, and experimentation in conjunction.

Several schools of thought existed within the medical field during Galen's lifetime, the main two being the Empiricists and Rationalists (also called Dogmatists or Philosophers), with the Methodists being a smaller group. The Empiricists emphasized the importance of physical practice and experimentation, or "active learning" in the medical discipline. In direct opposition to the Empiricists were the Rationalists, who valued the study of established teachings in order to create new theories in the name of medical advancements. The Methodists formed somewhat of a middle ground, as they were not as experimental as the Empiricists, nor as theoretical as the Rationalists. The Methodists mainly utilized pure observation, showing greater interest in studying the natural course of ailments than making efforts to find remedies. Galen's education had exposed him to the four major schools of thought (Platonists, Peripatetics, Stoics, Epicureans), with teachers from the Rationalist sect and from the Empiricist sect.

Published works[link]

Galen may have produced more work than any author in antiquity, rivaling the quantity of work issued from Augustine of Hippo.^[43] So profuse was Galen's output that the surviving texts represent nearly half of all the extant literature from ancient Greece.^[22][43] It has been reported that Galen employed twenty scribes to write down his words.^{[citation needed]} Galen may have written as many as 600 treatises, amounting to some 10 million words.^{[citation needed]} Although his surviving works amount to some 3 million words, this is thought to represent less than a third of his complete writings. In AD 191, a fire in the Temple of Peace destroyed many of his works, particularly treatises on philosophy.^{[citation needed]}

Because Galen's works were not translated into Latin in the ancient period, and because of the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West, the study of Galen, along with the Greek medical tradition as a whole, went into decline in Western Europe during the Early Middle Ages, when very few Latin scholars could read Greek. However, Galen and the ancient Greek medical tradition generally continued to be studied and followed in the Eastern Roman Empire, commonly known as the Byzantine Empire. All of the extant Greek manuscripts of Galen were copied by Byzantine scholars. In the Abbasid period (after 750 AD) Arab Muslims began to be interested in Greek scientific and medical texts for the first time, and had some of Galen's texts translated into Arabic, often by Syrian Christian scholars (see below). As a result some texts of Galen exist only in Arabic translation,^[44] while others exist only in medieval Latin translations of the Arabic. In some cases scholars have even attempted to translate from the Latin or Arabic back into Greek where the original is lost.^[43][45][46] For some of the ancient sources, such as Herophilus, Galen's account of their work is all that survives.

Even in his own time, forgeries and unscrupulous editions of his work were a problem, prompting him to write On his Own Books. Forgeries in Latin, Arabic or Greek continued until the Renaissance. Some of Galen's treatises have appeared under many different titles over the years. Sources are often in obscure and difficult to access journals or repositories. Although written in Greek, by convention the works are referred to by Latin titles, and often by merely abbreviations of those. No single authoritative collection of his work exists, and controversy remains as to the authenticity of a number of works attributed to Galen. Consequently research on Galen's work is fraught with hazard.^[20][43]

Various attempts have been made to classify Galen's vast output. For instance Coxe (1846) lists a Prolegomena, or introductory books, followed by 7 classes of treatise embracing Physiology (28 vols.), Hygiene (12), Aetiology (19), Semeiotics (14), Pharmacy (10), Blood letting (4) and Therapeutics (17), in addition to 4 of aphorisms, and spurious works.^[47] The most complete compendium of Galen's writings, surpassing even modern projects like the Corpus Medicorum Graecorum, is the one compiled and translated by Karl Gottlob Kühn of Leipzig between 1821 and 1833.^[43] This collection consists of 122 of Galen's treatises, translated from the original Greek into Latin (the text is presented in both languages). Over 20,000 pages in length, it is divided into 22 volumes, with 676 index pages.^{[citation needed]} Many of Galen's works are included in the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae, a digital library of Greek literature started in 1972. Another useful modern source is the French Bibliothèque interuniversitaire de médicine (BIUM).

Legacy[link]

Late antiquity[link]

In his time, Galen's reputation as both physician and philosopher was legendary,^[48] the Emperor Marcus Aurelius describing him as "Primum sane medicorum esse, philosophorum autem solum" (first among doctors and unique among philosophers Praen 14: 660). Other contemporary authors in the Greek world confirm this including Theodotus the Shoemaker, Athenaeus and Alexander of Aphrodisias. The 7th-century poet George of Pisida went so far as to refer to Christ as a second and neglected Galen.^[49] Galen continued to exert an important influence over the theory and practice of medicine until the mid-17th century in the Byzantine and Arabic worlds and Europe. Hippocrates and Galen form important landmarks of 600 years of Greek medicine. A. J. Brock describes them as representing the foundation and apex respectively.^[5] A few centuries after Galen Palladius Iatrosophista in his commentary on Hippocrates, stated that Hippocrates sowed and Galen reaped.

Thus Galen summarised and synthesised the work of his predecessors, and it is in Galen's words (Galenism) that Greek medicine was handed down to subsequent generations, such that Galenism became the means by which Greek medicine was known to the world. Frequently this was in the form of restating and reinterpreting, such as in Magnus of Nisibis' 4th-century work on urine, which was in turn translated into Arabic.^[50] Yet the full importance of his contributions was not appreciated till long after his death.^[5] Galen's rhetoric and prolificity were so powerful as to convey the impression that there was little left to learn. The term Galenism has subsequently taken on both a positive and pejorative meaning as one that transformed medicine in late antiquity yet so dominated subsequent thinking as to stifle further progress.^[50]

After the collapse of the Western Empire the study of Galen and other Greek works almost disappeared in the Latin West. In contrast, in the predominantly Greek-speaking eastern half of the Roman empire (Byzantium), many commentators of the subsequent centuries, such as Oribasius, physician to the emperor Julian who compiled a Synopsis in the 4th century, preserved and disseminated Galen's works, making Galenism more accessible. Nutton refers to these authors as the "medical refrigerators of antiquity".^[5][50] In late antiquity medical writing veered increasingly in the direction of the theoretical at the expense of the practical, with many authors merely debating Galenism. Magnus of Nisibis was a pure theorist, as were John of Alexandria and Agnellus of Ravenna with their lectures on Galen's De Sectis.^[51] So strong was Galenism that other authors such as Hippocrates began to be seen through a Galenic lens, while his opponents became marginalised and other medical sects such as Asclepiadism slowly disappeared.^[50] Greek medicine was part of Greek culture, and Syrian Eastern Christians came in contact with it while the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) ruled Syria and Western Mesopotamia, regions that were conquered from Byzantium in the 7th century by Arab Muslims. After 750 AD, Muslims had these Syrian Christians make the first translations of Galen into Arabic. From then on Galen and the Greek medical tradition in general became assimilated into the medieval and early modern Islamic Middle East.^[5]

Influence on Islamic medicine[link]

The first major translator of Galen into Arabic was the Syrian Christian Hunayn ibn Ishaq. Hunayn translated (c. 830–870) 129 works of "Jalinos"^[52] into Arabic. One of the Arabic translations, ‘Kitab ila Aglooqan fi Shifa al Amraz’, which is extant in the Library of Ibn Sina Academy of Medieval Medicine & Sciences, is regarded as a masterpiece of Galen's literary works. A part of the Alexandrian compendium of Galen’s work, this 10th century manuscript comprises two parts that include details regarding various types of fevers (Humyat) and different inflammatory conditions of the body. More importantly, it includes details of more than 150 single and compound formulations of both herbal and animal origin. The book provides an insight into understanding the traditions and methods of treatment in the Greek (Unani) and Roman eras. In addition, this book provides a direct source for the study of more than 150 single and compound drugs used during the Greco-Roman period.

Galen's insistence on a rational systematic approach to medicine set the template for Islamic medicine^{[citation needed]}, which rapidly spread throughout the Arab Empire. Arabic sources, such as Rhazes (Muhammad ibn Zakarīya Rāzi 865–925 AD), continue to be the source of discovery of new or relatively inaccessible Galenic writings.^[46] As the title, Doubts on Galen by Rhazes implies, as well as the writings of physicians such as Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar) and Ibn al-Nafis,^[53] the works of Galen were not accepted unquestioningly, but as a challengeable basis for further inquiry.

A strong emphasis on experimentation and empiricism led to new results and new observations, which were contrasted and combined with those of Galen by writers such as Rhazes, Ali ibn Abbas al-Majusi (Haly Abbas), Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi (Abulasis), Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Ibn Zuhr and Ibn al-Nafis. For example, the experiments carried out by Rāzi and Ibn Zuhr contradicted the Galenic theory of humorism,^{[citation needed]} while Ibn al-Nafis' discovery of the pulmonary circulation contradicted the Galenic theory on the heart.^[54]

Reintroduction to the Latin West[link]

From the 11th century onwards, Latin translations of Islamic medical texts began to appear in the West, alongside the Salerno school of thought, and were soon incorporated into the curriculum at the universities of Naples and Montpellier. From that time, Galenism took on a new, unquestioned authority, Galen even being referred to as the "Medical Pope of the Middle Ages".^[5] Constantine the African was amongst those who translated both Hippocrates and Galen from Arabic. In addition to the more numerous translations of Arabic texts in this period, there were a few translations of Galenic works directly from the Greek, such as Burgundio of Pisa's translation of De complexionibus. Galen's works on anatomy and medicine became the mainstay of the medieval physician's university curriculum, alongside Ibn Sina's The Canon of Medicine which elaborated on Galen's works. Unlike pagan Rome, Christian Europe did not exercise a universal prohibition of the dissection and autopsy of the human body and such examinations were carried out regularly from at least the 13th century.^[55] However, Galen's influence, as in the Arab world, was so great that when dissections discovered anomalies compared with Galen's anatomy, the physicians often tried to fit these into the Galenic system. An example of this is Mondino de Liuzzi, who describes rudimentary blood circulation in his writings but still asserts that the left ventricle should contain air. Some cited these changes as proof that human anatomy had changed since the time of Galen.^[56]

Renaissance[link]

The Renaissance and fall of the Byzantine Empire (1453) was accompanied by an influx of Greek scholars and manuscripts to the West, allowing direct comparison between the Arabic commentaries and the original Greek texts of Galen. This New Learning and the Humanist movement, particularly the work of Thomas Linacre, promoted literae humaniores including Galen in the Latin scientific canon, De Naturalibus Facultatibus appearing in London in 1523. Debates on medical science now had two traditions, the more conservative Arabian and the liberal Greek.^[5] The more extreme liberal movements began to challenge the role of authority in medicine, as exemplified by Paracelsus' symbolically burning the works of Avicenna and Galen at his medical school in Basle.^[5] Nevertheless Galen's pre-eminence amongst the great thinkers of the millennium is exemplified by a 16th-century mural in the refectory of the Great Lavra of Mt Athos. It depicts pagan sages at the foot of the Tree of Jesse, with Galen between the Sibyl and Aristotle.^[50]

Galen. De pulsibus. (Manuscript; Venice, ca. 1550). This Greek manuscript of Galen’s treatise on the pulse is interleaved with a Latin translation.

Galenism's final defeat came from a combination of the negativism of Paracelsus and the constructivism of the Italian Renaissance anatomists, such as Vesalius in the 16th century.^[5] In the 1530s, the Flemish anatomist and physician Andreas Vesalius took on a project to translate many of Galen's Greek texts into Latin. Vesalius' most famous work, De humani corporis fabrica, was greatly influenced by Galenic writing and form. Seeking to examine critically Galen's methods and outlook, Vesalius turned to human cadaver dissection as a means of verification. Galen's writings were shown by Vesalius to describe details present in monkeys but not in humans, and he demonstrated Galen's limitations through books and hands-on demonstrations despite fierce opposition from orthodox pro-Galenists such as Jacobus Sylvius. Since Galen states that he is using observations of monkeys (human dissection was prohibited) to give an account of what the body looks like, Vesalius could portray himself as using Galen's approach of description of direct observation to create a record of the exact details of the human body, since he worked in a time when human dissection was allowed. Galen argued that monkey anatomy was close enough to humans for physicians to learn anatomy with monkey dissections and then make observations of similar structures in the wounds of their patients, rather than trying to learn anatomy only from wounds in human patients, as would be done by students trained by the Empiricist medical sect would.^[57] The examinations of Vesalius also disproved medical theories of Aristotle and Mondino de Liuzzi. One of the best known examples of Vesalius' overturning of Galenism was his demonstration that the interventricular septum of the heart was not permeable, as Galen had taught (Nat Fac III xv). However, this had been revealed two years before by Michael De Villeneuve( Michael Servetus) in his fateful "Christianismi restitutio" (1553).

Michael De Villanueva (Michael Servetus), Vesalius' fellow student, was the best Galenist at the University of Paris, according to Johann Winter von Andernach,^[58] who taught both. In the Galenism of the Renaissance, editions of the Opera Omnia by Galen were very important. It was begun in Venice in 1541–1542 by the Guinta. There were fourteen editions of the book from that date until 1625. Just one edition was produced from Lyon between 1548 and 1551. The Lyon edition has commentaries on breathing and blood streaming that correct the work of earlier renowned authors such as Vesalius, Caius or Janus Cornarius. Michael De Villeneuve had contracts with Jean Frellon for that work, and the Servetus scholar-researcher Francisco Javier González Echeverría ^[59][60] presented research that became an accepted communication in the International Society for the History of Medicine^[61] which concluded that Michael De Villeneuve (Michael Servetus) is the author of the commentaries of this edition of Frellon, in Lyon.^[62]

Another convincing case where understanding of the body was extended beyond where Galen had left it came from these demonstrations of the nature of human circulation and the subsequent work of Andrea Cesalpino, Fabricio of Acquapendente and William Harvey.^[5] Some Galenic teaching, such as his emphasis on bloodletting as a remedy for many ailments, however remained influential until well into the 19th century.^[63]

Contemporary scholarship[link]

Galenic scholarship remains an intense and vibrant field, following renewed interest in his work, dating from the Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft.^[43]

See also[link]

• Abascantus
• Galenic formulation
• Timeline of medicine and medical technology

Notes[link]

Sources[link]

• Algra K (ed.) The Cambridge History of Hellenistic Philosophy. Cambridge University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-521-25028-5, ISBN 978-0-521-25028-3
• Boudon-Millot V (ed. and trans.) Galien: Introduction générale; Sur l'ordre de ses propres livres; Sur ses propres livres; Que l'excellent médecin est aussi philosophe Paris: Les Belles Lettres. 2007, 978-2-251-00536-2
• Boylen M. Galen. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Debru A. Galen on Pharmacology: Philosophy, History, and Medicine : Proceedings of the Vth International Galen Colloquium, Lille, 16–18 March 1995 BRILL 1997 ISBN 90-04-10403-8, ISBN 978-90-04-10403-7
• Dunn PM. Galen (AD 129–200) of Pergamun: anatomist and experimental physiologist. Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed. 2003 Sep;88(5):F441-3.
• Everson S. (ed.) Language. Cambridge University Press, 1994 ISBN 0-521-35795-0, ISBN 978-0-521-35795-1
• French RK. Medicine Before Science: The Rational and Learned Doctor from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment. Cambridge University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-521-00761-5, ISBN 978-0-521-00761-0
• Gleason MW. Shock and Awe: The Performance Dimension of Galen’s Anatomy Demonstrations. Princeton/Stanford Working Papers in Classics January 2007
• Gleason MW. Making Men: Sophists and Self-Presentation in Ancient Rome. Princeton 1995
• Hankinson RJ (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Galen. CUP 2008 ISBN 978-0-521-81954-1
• Hankinson R.J. Cause and explanation in ancient Greek thought. Oxford University Press, 1998 ISBN 0-19-924656-4, ISBN 978-0-19-924656-4
• Ilberg J. Aus Galens Praxis. Neue Jahrbücher für das Klassische Altertum, Geschichte und Deutsche Literatur 15: 276–312, 1905
• Hakim Syed Zillur Rahman (ed.). Jawami Kitab Al-Nabd Al-Saghir by Galen (2007), Ibn Sina Academy of Medieval Medicine & Sciences, Aligarh, India; ISBN 978-81-901362-7-3
• Hakim Syed Zillur Rahman (ed.). Kitab fi Firaq al Tibb by Galen (2008), Ibn Sina Academy of Medieval Medicine & Sciences, Aligarh, India; ISBN 978-81-906070-1-8
• Hakim Syed Zillur Rahman (ed.). Kitab al Anasir by Galen (2008), Ibn Sina Academy of Medieval Medicine & Sciences, Aligarh, India; ISBN 978-81-906070-2-5
• Hakim Syed Zillur Rahman (ed.). Kitab al Mizaj of Galen (2008), Ibn Sina Academy of Medieval Medicine & Sciences, Aligarh, India; ISBN 978-81-906070-3-2
• Kotrc RF, Walters KR. A bibliography of the Galenic Corpus. A newly researched list and arrangement of the titles of the treatises extant in Greek, Latin, and Arabic. Trans Stud Coll Physicians Phila. 1979 December;1(4):256–304
• Mattern SP. Physicians and the Roman Imperial Aristocracy: The Patronage of Therapeutics. Bulletin of the History of Medicine. Volume 73, Number 1, Spring 1999, pp. 1–18
• Metzger BM. New Testament Studies: Philological, Versional, and Patristic. BRILL 1980 ISBN 90-04-06163-0, ISBN 978-90-04-06163-7
• Muhaqqiq M. Medical Sects in Islam. al-Tawhid Islamic Journal, vol. VIII, No.2
• Nutton V. Roman Medicine, 250 BC to AD 200, and Medicine in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, in Lawrence C.(ed.) The Western Medical Tradition: 800–1800 A.D. 1995
• Nutton V. Ancient Medicine. Routledge, 2004 ISBN 0-415-08611-6, ISBN 978-0-415-08611-0
• Osler W. The Evolution of Modern Medicine 1913. Plain Label Books 1987. Chapter II: Greek Medicine
• Peterson DW. Observations on the chronology of the Galenic Corpus. Bull Hist Med 51(3): 484, 1977
• Siegel RE. Galen's System of Physiology and Medicine, Basel 1968 (this text is not regarded highly by most Galen scholars)
• Siegel RE. Galen on Sense Perception, His Doctrines, Observations and Experiments on Vision, Hearing, Smell, Taste, Touch and Pain, and Their Historical Sources. Karger, Basel 1970 (this text is not regarded highly by most Galen scholars)
• Siegel RE. Galen on Psychology, Psychopathology, and Function and Diseases of the Nervous System 1973 (this text is not regarded highly by most Galen scholars)
• Smith WG. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. J Walton 1849
• Stakelum JW, Galen and the Logic of Proposition, Rome, Angelicum, 1940
• Taylor HO. Greek Biology And Medicine. Marshall Jones 1922. Chapter 5: The Final System - Galen
• Temkin O. Galenism: Rise and Decline of a Medical Philosophy. Cornell University Press, Ithaca 1973
• The Cambridge Ancient History: Second Edition. XI The High Empire A.D. 70–192 Cambridge University Press, 2000 ISBN 0-521-26335-2, ISBN 978-0-521-26335-1
• Thesaurus Linguae Graecae: TLG
• van der Eijk P. Medicine and Philosophy in Classical Antiquity: Doctors and Philosophers on Nature, Soul, Health and Disease.Cambridge University Press, 2005 ISBN 0-521-81800-1, ISBN 978-0-521-81800-1
• Watson PB. Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. Harper & brothers, 1884

Further reading[link]

• Brock, Arthur John (1929). Greek Medicine, Being Extracts Illustrative of Medical Writers from Hippocrates to Galen. London: Dent. 
• Galen (1991). On the therapeutic method. R.J. Hankinson, trans. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-824494-0. 
• Gilbert, N W. (1960). Renaissance Concepts of Method. New York: Columbia University Press. 
• C. Gill, T. Whitmarsh, and J. Wilkins (eds), Galen and the World of Knowledge (New York and Cambridge, 2009) (Greek Cultures in the Roman World).
• Kudlien, Fridolf; Durling, Richard J., eds. (1991). Galen's method of healing : proceedings of the 1982 Galen Symposium. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 90-04-09272-2. 
• Lloyd, G.E.R. (1991). Methods and problems in Greek science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-37419-7. 
• Sarton, George (1954). Galen of Pergamon. Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press. 
• Walzer, Richard (1949). Galen on Jews and Christians. London: Oxford University Press. 
• Mark Grant, Roman Cookery, which features recipes/ clinary advice interspersed through Galen's writings. (Serif, London, 2008). [1]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Galen

• Classicsindex: Galen
• Corpus Medicorum Graecorum editions online
• Gerhard Fichtner, Galen bibliography
• University of Virginia: Health Sciences Library. Galen
• Channel 4 - History - Ancient surgery
• Lienhard JH. Engines of our Ingenuity, Number 2097 - Constantine the African
• Nutton V. Galen of Pergamum, Encyclopædia Britannica
• Pearcy L. Galen: A biographical sketch. Medicina Antiqua
• Taylor HO. Greek Biology and Medicine 1922: Chapter 5 - "The Final System: Galen"
• Galenus von Pergamon - Leben und Werk. Includes alphabetical list of Latin Titles
• (French) Galien's works digitized by the BIUM (Bibliothèque interuniversitaire de médecine et d'odontologie, Paris), see its digital library Medic@.
• Hypertexts - Medicina Antiqua, University College London (Commentary on Hippocrates' On the Nature of Man; On the Natural Faculties; Exhortation to Study the Arts: To Menodotus; On Diagnosis from Dreams)

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Galen Rupp

Rupp at the World Championship Athletics 2009 in Berlin.
Personal information
Born	(1986-05-08) May 8, 1986 (age 26) Portland, Oregon
Residence	Portland, Oregon
Height	5 feet 11 inches (1.80 m)
Weight	138 pounds (63 kg)
Sport
Country	United States
Event(s)	Mile, 5000m, 10,000m, Cross Country
College team	Oregon Ducks
Coached by	Alberto Salazar
Achievements and titles
World finals	2007 10000 m, 11th 2009 10000 m, 8th[1] 2011 10000 m, 7th[2] 5000 m, 9th[3]
Olympic finals	2008 10000 m, 13th
Medal record Men’s athletics Competitor for the  United States Pan American Junior Championships Gold 2003 Bridgetown 5000 m

Galen Rupp (born May 8, 1986 in Portland, Oregon) is an American cross-country and track and field athlete, who competed for the University of Oregon and currently trains under Alberto Salazar as a member of the Oregon Track Club. Rupp competed for his native country in the men's 10000 m at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, finishing in 13th place. He is the current American record holder at 10,000 m with a time of 26:48.00. He is only the second non-African to break the 27-minute barrier in the 10,000 m behind compatriot Chris Solinsky.

Early career[link]

Rupp set junior national and American high school records while competing for Portland, Oregon's Central Catholic High School. Originally a soccer player, he caught the eye of American marathon legend Alberto Salazar, who coached him to great high school success, including two Oregon state titles in cross country (2002 & 2003) and three individual championships in track (1500 meters in 2004 and 3000 meters in 2003 & 2004). After winning the Oregon state title in cross country in 2003, he went on to finish 2nd nationally in the 2003 Foot Locker Cross Country Championships. In the spring of 2004, Rupp won his 5000 meters heat against college runners at the Stanford Cardinal Invitational with a time of 13:55.32, fourth best in prep history. He went on to break the Oregon state record in the 1500 meters (3:45.3) and the mile (4:01.8), the latter mark being the eighth best in American high school history. In June 2004 Rupp broke the U.S. high school record for 3000 meters at 8:03.67 (since broken by German Fernandez), also breaking the high school record for 2000 meters en route (5:18.5). On July 31 in Heusden-Zolder, Belgium, he broke Gerry Lindgren’s 40-year old U.S. high school record for 5000 meters by almost seven seconds, running 13:37.91 for the distance. He finished his high school career with a 10,000 meters race of 29:09.56 in Brasschaat, Belgium, fourth fastest 10K ever for an American schoolboy.

After graduating from high school in the summer of 2004, Rupp took a semester off and then went on to run track and cross country for the University of Oregon.

College cross-country career[link]

After an injury shortened NCAA cross country season in 2005, Rupp came back in 2006 to defeat two-time Pac-10 champion Robert Cheseret, Bernard Lagat's brother, of the University of Arizona to become Oregon's 10th male runner to win a Pac-10 Conference cross country title. He also led a young Oregon team to victory over the Stanford Cardinal, who had won the previous six Pac-10 titles in a row. He went on to finish in 6th place in the 2006 NCAA Men's Cross Country Championship. One year later, Rupp finished in second place (1 second behind the champion, Liberty's Josh McDougal) and led the Oregon Ducks to the 2007 NCAA men's cross country team championship.

In the 2008 NCAA national cross country championships, Rupp won his first individual NCAA title by outkicking Liberty University's Sam Chelanga, crossing the finish line with a time of 29:03.8, a new course record on the Terre Haute, IN site, and leading the Ducks to repeat as NCAA team champions.^[4]

College track and field career[link]

On May 7, 2005 at the Oregon Twilight Meet Rupp broke Rudy Chapa's U.S. junior (age 19 and under) record for 10,000 meters with a time of 28:25.52,^[5] Two months later, he placed 2nd in the 10,000 meters at the NCAA Men's Outdoor Track and Field Championship.^[6] which is also the still the current North American and Pan American junior record. On July 17, 2005 Rupp broke Gerry Lindgren's U.S. junior record in the 3000 meters at Lignano, Italy with a time of 7:49.16,^[5] which also is the current North American and Pan American junior record.

In indoor track, Rupp placed 5th in the 5000 meters and 6th in the 3000 meters at the 2006 NCAA indoor championships, earning All American status in both events. His 2006 outdoor season was brief due to the onset of hypothyroidism.

A year later he finished 3rd in the 5000 and 4th in the 3000 at the 2007 NCAA Men's Indoor Track and Field Championship. He began his outdoor season by running a 28:35 10,000 meters at Stanford.^[6] During the race he caused some controversy by continually slowing down to wait for another athlete. On April 20, 2007 Rupp made a huge comeback in the last 200 meters of a 5000 meter race to edge out Chris Solinsky. In this race Rupp improved his 5k PR to 13:30. On April 29, 2007 Rupp defeated a stellar field to win the men's 10,000 meter race at the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational at Stanford. Rupp's time of 27:33.48 set an American-born NCAA Collegiate Record for the event and also gave Rupp the seventh fastest time in US history. Two weeks later Rupp won the 10k and the 5k at the Pac-10 conference meet, and helped Oregon to the team title.^[6] As in his freshman year, he went on to finish second in the 10,000 meters at the NCAA track & field championships.

After redshirting the 2008 track season to prepare for the Olympics, Rupp's 2009 track season was a resounding success. Indoors he joined the sub-4:00 club for the mile on March 7 by running a 3:57.86 at the Husky Last Chance Qualifier Meet in Seattle, WA. On February 13, 2009 he broke the American record for the indoor 5000 m with a time of 13:18.12 at the Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville, Arkansas.^[7] At the NCAA indoor nationals, he won an unprecedented triple in the 5000 meters (13:41.45), the distance medley relay (running a 3:57.07 1600 meter anchor leg only 90 minutes after his 5000 victory), and the 3000 (7:48.94, the next day). This triple victory helped Oregon win its first ever indoor national team title.

Outdoors, Rupp helped break the NCAA 4 x mile record on May 10. Rupp (3:58.93) anchored the relay with fellow Oregon teammates Matt Centrowitz (3:59.53), Andrew Wheating (3:59.60), and Shadrack Kiptoo-Biwott (4:05.21), shaving a little more than a second off of the old record with a 16:03.24. After helping Oregon to defend their Pac-10 title, Rupp won the 5000 and 10,000 meters at the 2009 NCAA Division I outdoor track championships.^[8] In all, Rupp earned 14 All American honors at Oregon along with 5 individual championships, a relay championship, 2 NCAA cross country team titles and an indoor track NCAA team title.

In his last appearance for the University of Oregon, Rupp won the 10,000 meters at the 2009 USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships at Hayward Field with a time of 27:52.53.^[9]

Rupp won the Inaugural Bowerman Award in 2009. The Bowerman Award is given to college track's Athlete of the Year.^[10]

Professional and Olympic career[link]

He made his global senior debut at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics and he came in eleventh in the 10,000 m race.^[11] Rupp finished second in the 10,000 m event at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials, earning a spot on the 2008 US Olympic team. He went on to finish 13th in the 10,000 m event at the 2008 Olympics with a season-best time of 27:36.99.^[6]

He turned professional in the 2009 season and defeated Dathan Ritzenhein to win the 10,000 m title at the 2009 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.^[12] This earned him a place in the American team for the 2009 World Championships in Athletics where he was one of only two non-Africans in the top twelve alongside Ritzenhein.^[13] Without a major outdoor competition to focus on that year, he chose to compete at the 2010 IAAF World Indoor Championships. He set a personal best of 7:42.40 for the 3000 m, taking fifth place in the final as a result.^[14] He knocked over twenty seconds off his previous 10,000 m best with a run of 27:10.74 in Palo Alto at the Payton Jordan Invitational in Stanford. Coming into that race, the American 10,000 meter record was 27:13.98 by Meb Keflezighi, and though Rupp's time was over three seconds faster than that, he was beaten to the punch by Chris Solinsky who won the race with a New American record of 26:59.60. Two months later Rupp went on to retain his national title in the 10k with a win at the 2010 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.^[15] Rupp competed on the 2010 IAAF Diamond League circuit and made a series of improvements to his personal records. He broke four minutes for the mile run at the Pre Classic, running 3:57.72,^[16] set a 3000 m outdoor best of 7:43.24 at the London Grand Prix,^[17] and then improved his 5000 m time to 13:07.35 at the season-ending Weltklasse meeting.^[18]

Rupp took part in the Great Edinburgh Cross Country in 2011 and came second behind Mo Farah, helping the American team to second place.^[19] He then took part in the New York City Half Marathon, his debut at that distance, and finished third in a time of 1:00:30,^[20][21] making him the 3rd fastest American at the half marathon. At the 2011 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships he once again retained his national title in the 10,000 m, closing the last 800 m in a quick 1:52.59, and came back the next day to finish third in the 5,000 m. Later in July he improved his personal best to 13:06.86 in the 5000 m at the Diamond League meeting in Birmingham, out sprinting the reigning world cross country champion Imane Merga for second behind winner Mo Farah.

At the 2011 World Championships in Athletics Rupp finished 7th in the 10,000 meters in a seasonal best of 27:26.84. He then doubled back to run the 5,000 meters, and though he was in the lead with Mo Farah with a little more than a lap remaining, he was outkicked and finished in 9th place with a 13:28.64.

Rupp finished his track season with a new American record in the 10,000 meters as he ran 26:48.00 in finishing 3rd behind winner Kenenisa Bekele at the Memorial Van Damme meet on September 16th, 2011.^[22]

Rupp set a new American record in the 2 mile as he ran 8:09.72 in finishing 1st at the USATF Classic meet on February 11, 2012.

Personal bests[link]

References[link]

• Fraioli, Mario (26 November 2010). "Webb nips Rupp at Silicon Valley Turkey Trot". Competitor Network. Retrieved 2011-03-21.

External links[link]

• IAAF profile for Galen Rupp
• USATF profile for Galen Rupp
• University of Oregon bio: Galen Rupp
• Galen Rupp on Twitter

Audio interview[link]

• TheFinalSprint.com's interview with Galen Rupp on 5/17/07 after the Oregon Ducks won the 2007 PAC-10 title

Video Interviews[link]

• Flotrack coverage of Galen Rupp races
• Flotrack coverage of Galen Rupp Interview

Awards
Preceded by ---	The Bowerman (Men's winner) 2009	Succeeded by Ashton Eaton

Medal record
Men's athletics
Competitor for  Kenya
Olympic Games
Silver	2004 Athens	1500 m
Bronze	2000 Sydney	1500 m
World Championships
Silver	2001 Edmonton	1500 m
World Cup
Gold	2002 Madrid	1500 m
World Indoor Championships
Gold	2004 Budapest	3000 m
Silver	2003 Birmingham	1500 m
Competitor for  United States
World Championships
Gold	2007 Osaka	1500 m
Gold	2007 Osaka	5000 m
Silver	2009 Berlin	5000 m
Silver	2011 Daegu	5000 m
Bronze	2009 Berlin	1500 m
World Indoor Championships
Gold	2010 Doha	3000 m
Gold	2012 Istanbul	3000 m
Competitor for Americas
Continental Cup
Gold	2010 Split	3000 m
Gold	2010 Split	5000 m

Bernard Kipchirchir Lagat (born December 12, 1974) is an American middle and long distance champion athlete.

Lagat was born in Kapsabet, Kenya. Prior to his change of domicile to the USA, Lagat had an extensive competitive career representing his native country.

He is the American record holder in the 1500m, mile, 3000m, and 5000m indoors, as well as the 1500m, 3000m, and 5000m outdoors, and is the Kenyan record holder at 1500m outdoors.

Lagat is a twelve time medalist in World Championships and Olympics including five gold medals.

Early life[link]

Lagat, now a Kenyan American, was born in Kaptel village, near Kapsabet town in Nandi District. He is a Nandi, sub-tribe of the Kalenjin people.

He graduated from the Kaptel High School in 1994, where he had started his athletics career. He joined Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in Nairobi 1996. Later in the same year he moved to Washington State University where other Kenyan athletic greats such as Henry Rono and Michael Kosgei prospered.

In 1998, while at WSU, Lagat won three NCAA individual championships; indoor mile and 3000m, as well as the 5000m outdoors.

In 2000, Lagat graduated from Washington State University with a degree in management information systems.

A large number of Lagat's siblings have also competed in athletics; his older sister Mary Chepkemboi won the 3000 m at the 1984 African Championships in Athletics.^[1] Lagat's younger brother, Robert Cheseret, is a multi-time PAC-10 champion runner for the University of Arizona.

Representing Kenya (2000–2004)[link]

Lagat first represented his native Kenya at 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia.^[2] Using team tactics, Lagat and Kenyan team mate Noah Ngeny kept heavy favorite Hicham El Guerrouj from winning gold. In a very close finish, Ngeny took gold, Guerrouj won Silver, and Lagat captured bronze. Lagat finished the year being ranked #3 in the world at 1500m.

The next summer, Lagat won the silver medal, behind Guerrouj, at the 2001 World Championships in Athletics, and later that summer, at a meeting in Brussels Lagat set the Kenyan National Record and became the second fastest individual ever at 1500m when he ran 3:26.34, finishing second in this race behind Hicham el Guerrouj (3:26.13), in what was a failed attempt to break Guerrouj's own world record of 3:26.00. Lagat finished the year being ranked #2 in the world at 1500m.

Lagat spent most of 2002 and 2003 chasing Guerrouj. At the 2003 IAAF World Indoor Championships he earned the silver medal at 1500m, this time behind Driss Maazouzi of France. Lagat withdrew from the 2003 world outdoor championships after a false positive blood test showed traces of EPO in his system. His B sample test came back negative, clearing him of any charges. He was ranked 2nd and 4th in the world at 1500m in 2002 and 2003 respectively.

In the 3000m at the 2004 IAAF World Indoor Championships Lagat won his first international gold medal. Lagat was clearly overjoyed at his comeback since 2003. Throughout the spring he competed fiercely and beat his rival Guerrouj in Zurich with a world leading time at 1500m of 3:27.40. At the 2004 Summer Olympics Lagat seemed poised to once again defeat Guerrouj. The final was a very dramatic race, with Lagat and Guerrouj battling down the final 100m, swapping the lead multiple times. It was Guerrouj that prevailed, with Lagat close behind, earning the silver medal, running the final lap in under 52 seconds. He was however ranked #1 in the world at 1500m for the year.

Representing United States[link]

Beginning of American career[link]

In March 2005, Lagat announced that he had become a naturalized citizen of the United States since May 7, 2004, despite competing for Kenya in the 2004 Summer Olympics. Since Kenya does not allow dual citizenship his silver medal in the 1500 m was at stake, but in the end he was allowed to retain it. Because of this switch of nationality, Lagat served a ban from international championship events. For this reason he missed the IAAF World Championships in Helsinki. A similar switch of nationality, in this case Kenyan to Danish, caused Wilson Kipketer to miss the 1996 Olympic Games. Today, Lagat lives in Tucson AZ and Tübingen (Germany) with his wife Gladys Tom (a Canadian of Chinese descent),^[3] whom he met while they both attended Washington State University,^[4][5] and their son Miika Kimutai (born in 2006) and daughter Gianna (born 2008).^[6]

The U.S. does allow dual citizenship and consequently races run by Lagat after May 7, 2004 could have been ratified as American records, since USATF rules only state that an athlete has to be a U.S. citizen competing in a sanctioned competition to be eligible to set a national record. However, at the 2005 USATF annual meeting, his 3:27.40 win in the 1500 meters, on August 6, 2004, in Zurich, was not ratified as an American record.

Nevertheless, Lagat owns three American records from races he had run in 2005 that were ratified by USATF. His first American records came indoors, with a 3:49.89 mile at Fayetteville, Arkansas, on February 11, 2005, during which his 1500 meters split time of 3:33.34 also established another new U.S. record, en route to a win in the event. The performance replaced records by Steve Scott, who set the previous American indoor mile record of 3:51.8 in 1981, and the previous American 1500 meter indoor record held by Jeff Atkinson, who ran 3:38.12 in 1989. Lagat's winning time of 3:29.40 at Rieti, Italy, on August 28, 2005, in the outdoor 1500 meters was ratified as his third new American record, improving upon the old record of 3:29.77, set by Sydney Maree in 1985.

Double world champion[link]

At the 2007 World Championships in Osaka Lagat surpassed all his previous achievements by becoming the first athlete to become world champion in both the 1,500 m and 5,000 m at the same IAAF World Outdoor Championships. Similar feats were accomplished by Hicham El Guerrouj at the 2004 Olympics and Paavo Nurmi at the 1924 Olympics.^[7][8]

2008 Olympics and 2009 Worlds[link]

Bernard Lagat at the 2009 World Championships

In 2008, Lagat won both 1500 m^[9][10] and 5000 m^[11] runs at the US Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon, qualifying himself to compete with Team USA at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.^[12] Hopes were high that his success in both these events would continue at the Olympics.^[13][14] However, Lagat failed to advance beyond the semi-finals in the 1500m run.^[15][16][17] He was more successful in the 5000 m run, winning his semi-final heat to advance,^[18][19] but ultimately did not medal, running to ninth place finish in the finals.^[20]

Lagat had concealed the fact that he was running with an injured Achilles tendon, a problem which hampered his training and contributed to his poor showing at the Olympics. He stated that his placings at the 2008 Beijing Games were "the biggest disappointment in my athletics career". The following season, he began with high altitude training in Flagstaff, Arizona.^[21] After tying Eamonn Coghlan's record of seven wins in the Wanamaker Mile at the 2009 Millrose Games in New York, Lagat broke Coghlan's record with an 8th win at Millrose in 2010.^[22] As the reigning world champion in the 1500 and 5000 meters, he automatically received qualification in the events at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics and set his sights on retaining his titles. Despite being much older than some of his competitors, Lagat's desire to win had not faded and he said "I am more motivated than ever to go to the podium in Berlin".^[21] Lagat ultimately won the bronze medal in the 1500m and the silver medal in the 5000 m.

2010 to present[link]

On February 6, 2010, Lagat set a new American record in his debut of the indoor 5000 meters at the Reebok Boston Indoor Games with a time of 13:11.50, beating previous record holder Galen Rupp who had set the record at 13:18.12 in 2009.^[23] On June 4, 2010, Lagat broke the American Record for 5000m with 12:54.12 at the Bislett Games in Oslo.^[24] Yet another area record came at the Rieti IAAF Grand Prix in August: chasing down Tariku Bekele in the 3000 m, he took second place with an American record of 7:29.00 – his first sub-7:30 minute time.

In July he broke his own 5000 m American record at the Monaco Diamond League meet by running 12:53.60 to finish a close second behind Mo Farah who set the British 5000m record in this race in a time of 12:53.11.^[25][26][27] At the 2011 World Championships in Athletics, the 5000 m final came down to a sprint finish and Lagat was beaten in the last straight by Mo Farah, leaving Lagat with his second consecutive silver medal at the world event.

At the 2012 Millrose Games, held for the first time at the Armory Track & Field Center, Lagat ran an American indoor record over 5000 m with a time of 13:07.15 minutes.^[28]

Achievements[link]

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Event	Notes
Representing  Kenya
1999	Universiade	Palma de Mallorca, Spain	1st	1500 m	3:40.99
2000	Olympic Games	Sydney, Australia	3rd	1500 m	3:32.44
2001	World Indoor Championships	Lisboa, Portugal	6th	3000 m	7:45.52
	World Championships	Edmonton, Canada	2nd	1500 m	3:31.10
2002	World Cup	Madrid, Spain	1st	1500 m	3:31.20
	African Championships	Radès, Tunisia	1st	1500 m	3:38.11
2003	World Indoor Championships	Birmingham, United Kingdom	2nd	1500 m	3:42.62
2004	World Indoor Championships	Budapest, Hungary	1st	3000 m	7:56.34
	Olympic Games	Athens, Greece	2nd	1500 m	3:34.30
Representing  United States
2007	World Championships	Osaka, Japan	1st	1500 m	3:34.77
			1st	5000 m	13:45.87
2008	Olympic Games	Beijing, China	9th	5000 m	13:26.89
2009	World Championships	Berlin, Germany	3rd	1500 m	3:36.20
			2nd	5000 m	13:17.33
2010	World Indoor Championships	Doha, Qatar	1st	3000 m	7:37.97
	Continental Cup	Split, Croatia	1st	3000 m	7:54.75
			1st	5000 m	13:58.23
2011	World Championships	Daegu, South Korea	2nd	5000 m	13:23.64
2012	World Indoor Championships	Istanbul, Turkey	1st	3000 m	7:41.44

Statistics[link]

Personal bests[link]

• Lagat's 1500m PB is the Kenyan National Record. After becoming an American citizen, Lagat set an American record in the 1500m of 3:29.30.

Records[link]

• All of Lagat's American records are also North American Area Records.
• His time of 3:26.34 minutes for the 1500 metres, set in 2001, remains the Kenyan and Commonwealth record for the event.
• The 3000 and 5000 marks, set since Lagat turned 35 years of age are also Masters World records and American Masters records. Lagat also holds the currently recognized Masters World record in the 1500 at 3:32.51 set at Herculis in 2010.

References[link]

External links[link]

• IAAF profile for Bernard Lagat
• IAAF Focus on Athletes
• USATF Profile
• NBC Olympics Profile
• ESPN Profile
• Kenyan-Born Runner Boosts U.S. Olympic Hopes (NPR)
• Bernard Lagat on Twitter

Video links[link]

• Flotrack Video Interview of Bernard Lagat