The social and intellectual context of Regimen II.

This paper addresses two questions, what is the social/historical context of Regimen II and how has the author organised his data? It establishes a framework for interrogating the Hippocratic text that is based on Galen's use of case studies across a wide social range, on his commentary on Hippocrates, Diodes, Mnesitheus and Praxagoras, and on his approach to terminology, definition and classification. The conclusion is that the Hippocratic text established its data successfully (to judge by Galen's criteria) before Aristotle and Theophrastus, but that the text was too laconic to be widely used. Hence Galen's new treatise rather than commentary on his Hippocratic predecessor.