Greek medicine is an important aspect of Greek culture. The Greeks were the first to put forward rational systems of medicine which resulted in a radically new conception of disease, accounting for causes and symptoms in purely natural terms. Greek rational medicine reached a climax in the third century BC at Alexandria, where medical anatomical researchers attained levels of accuracy and sophistication largely unsurpassed in Western culture until the 16th century.

In the past this subject has been difficult to study because of the inaccessibility of source material, which is highly diverse, widely scattered, frequently unedited, and at times fragmentary. The aim of this book is to help to resolve this problem by providing a collection and translation of some of this material and assembling it in an accessible form.