d work of Aetius as
evidence for the encouragement and patronage of medicine in early
Christian times, is to be found in the career of Alexander of Tralles,
whose writings have been the subject of most careful attention in the
Renaissance period and in our own, and who must be considered one of the
great independent thinkers in medicine. While it is usually assumed that
whatever there was of medical writing during the Middle Ages was mere
copying and compilation, here at least is a man who could not only
judiciously select, but who could critically estimate the value of
medical opinions and procedure, and weighing them by his own experience
and observation, turn out work that was valuable for all succeeding
generations. The modern German school of medical historians have agreed
in declaring him an independent thinker and physician, who represents a
distinct link in medical tradition.

He came of a distinguished family, in which the following of medicine as
a profession might be looked upon as hereditary. His father was a
physician, and it is probable that there were physicians in preceding
generations, and one of his brothers, Dioscoros, was also a successful
physician. Altogether four of his brothers reached such distinction in
their life work that their names have come down to us through nearly
fifteen hundred years. The eldest of them was Anthemios, the builder of
the great church of Santa Sophia in Constantinople. As this is one of
the world's great churches, and still stands for the admiration of men a
millennium and a half after its completion, it is easy to understand
that Anthemios' reputation is well founded. A second brother was
Metrodoros, a distinguished grammarian and teacher, especially of the
youthful nobility of Byzantium, as it was then called, or
Constantinople, as we have come to call it. A third brother was a
prominent jurist, also in Constantinople. The fourth brother, Dioscoros,
like Alexander, a physician, remained in his birthplace, Tralles, and
acquired there a great practice.

It was with his father at Tralles that Alexander received his early
medical training. The father of a friend and colleague, Cosmas, who
later dedicated a book to Alexander, was also his teacher, while he was
in his native city. As a young man, Alexander undertook extensive
travels, which led him into Italy, Gaul, Spain, and Africa, everywhere
gathering medical knowledge and medical experience. Then he settled down
at Ro