Thessalus of Tralles
Encyclopedia
Thessalus of Tralles was a famous Roman physician and early adherent to the Methodic school
Methodic school
The Methodic school of medicine was an ancient school of medicine in ancient Greece and Rome. The Methodic school arose in reaction to both the Empiric school and the Dogmatic school...

 of medicine. He lived in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, where he was the court physician of Emperor Nero. It was here that he died and was buried, and his tomb was to be seen on the Via Appia.

He was from Tralles in Lydia
Lydia
Lydia was an Iron Age kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the modern Turkish provinces of Manisa and inland İzmir. Its population spoke an Anatolian language known as Lydian....

. He was the son of a weaver, and followed the same employment himself in his youth. This, however, he soon gave up, and, though he had a poor general education, he embraced the medical profession, by which he acquired for a time a great reputation, and amassed a large fortune. He adopted the principles of the Methodic school, but modified and developed them. He appears to have exalted himself at the expense to his predecessors; asserting that none of them had contributed to the advance of medical science, and boasting that he himself could teach the art of healing in six months. Galen
Galen
Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus , better known as Galen of Pergamon , was a prominent Roman physician, surgeon and philosopher...

 frequently mentions him, but always in terms of contempt, and is often abusive towards him.

He supported a method of treatment that he named metasyncrisis. His object was, in obstinate chronic cases, where other remedies failed, to attempt a thorough change in the fundamental constitution of the organism (syncrisis). He began by the application, for three days, of strong vegetable remedies, both internally and externally, together with which, a strict regimen and emetics were applied. This was the preparation to a system of fasting
Fasting
Fasting is primarily the act of willingly abstaining from some or all food, drink, or both, for a period of time. An absolute fast is normally defined as abstinence from all food and liquid for a defined period, usually a single day , or several days. Other fasts may be only partially restrictive,...

, which concluded with a course of restoratives.

Interestingly, Thessalus regarded the chicory
Chicory
Common chicory, Cichorium intybus, is a somewhat woody, perennial herbaceous plant usually with bright blue flowers, rarely white or pink. Various varieties are cultivated for salad leaves, chicons , or for roots , which are baked, ground, and used as a coffee substitute and additive. It is also...

 plant to be an herb
Herb
Except in botanical usage, an herb is "any plant with leaves, seeds, or flowers used for flavoring, food, medicine, or perfume" or "a part of such a plant as used in cooking"...

 of the sun
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...

. He wrote several medical works, of which only the titles and a few sentences remain.
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