[Medical demonstrations in Rome at the time of Galen]

Because of his autobiographical recollections, Galen is an exceptional witness of physicians' public activities in Rome at the time of the Second Sophistic. His accounts of his anatomical demonstrations and of his public instruction vividly demonstrate the place of rhetoric and of improvisation in these performances. It likewise illustrates his contacts with the audience and his encounters with the sophists. With respect to this activity, Galen himself had contradictory feelings. Although he gave it up quite soon, he remained profoundly marked by it.