Galen (c. ad 129–200) was a Greek from Pergamon in Asia Minor. Because of his habit of putting autobiographical details into his works, we know that he was the son of a prosperous architect, Nikon, who named him Galenos (mild), perhaps in the hope that he would turn out different from his mother, who was a shrew. He speaks of his father with respect; he gave him an excellent education in literature, philosophy and the sciences, and finally sent him to Alexandria to study medicine after being advised in a dream to make him a physician. After a spell in Pergamon as medical officer to the gladiators, Galen went to Rome in 162 and quickly established a large and fashionable practice; the second bloodletting work gives a lively account of how he did it. It was not long before he was attending the emperor Marcus Aurelius, who had, if we can believe Galen, some very complimentary things to say about him. Galen wrote a short work, That the Best Physician is also a Philosopher, in which he condemned the ignorant and materialistically-minded doctors of his time, and urged physicians to emulate Hippocrates, who, at least according to Galen, had despised possessions and the pleasures of the table and the bed, and laboured unceasingly in the pursuit of knowledge.