This volume of new essays is based on a conference with the same title held at the University of Exeter in 2005. All those speaking on that occasion have written chapters in this volume, along with Riccardo Chiaradonna whose chapter has been specially prepared for the volume. The aim of this volume, like the conference on which it is based, is to contribute to the upsurge of new research on Galen by focusing on a topic that bridges the interests of specialists in ancient medical history and Classicists and philosophers more generally. The conference also represents the convergence of two current focuses of research in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at Exeter, on ancient medicine especially Galen and on Hellenistic and Imperial Greek culture more generally.

We would like to acknowledge the support for the funding of the conference provided by the British Academy, the Classical Association, the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies and the University of Exeter. We wish to thank most warmly all the contributors to the volume for their illuminating essays, and also the other participants at the conference whose comments helped to inform the final version of the papers. We are grateful to Michael Sharp, Classics Editor for Cambridge University Press, and the general editors of the series in which the volume appears, for their support and guidance.