Source edition
Galen. Claudii Galeni Opera Omnia, Volume 4. Kühn, Karl Gottlob, editor. Leipzig: Knobloch, 1822.
Source data
A Digital Corpus for Graeco-Arabic Studies · CC BY-SA 4.0
Cloned and adapted by Humanitext, with ongoing edits.
Summary
This treatise by the ancient Roman physician Galen explores the true nature of "good physical condition" (euexia). The author begins by defining the concepts of "state" and "good condition," distinguishing between absolute goodness and relative goodness. Drawing upon the authority of Hippocrates and Plato, Galen argues that the extreme physical conditioning pursued by athletes is not genuine health, but rather a precarious and dangerous state. He provides a detailed physiological explanation of how the overeating and hypercongestion common among athletes can extinguish the body's "innate heat" and cause blood vessels to rupture. Ultimately, the work demonstrates that such extreme athletic training is useless for the everyday life of a citizen and poses a severe threat to health.