Asclepiades of Bithynia: Greek physician and medical reformer

Asclepiades of Bithynia (124–40 BC) was a Greek physician who practised and taught Greek medicine in Rome. Among his many contributions, Asclepiades challenged the long-standing Hippocratic doctrine of the four humours. Influenced by Epicurean philosophy, he sought to construct a new theory of human disease, derived in part from atomic theories of chance and evolution earlier described by Democritus and Epicurus. In clinical practice, Asclepiades’s approach to physical and mental illnesses was reasoned, humane, and, in many ways, ahead of its time. As a result of his many contributions and his overall approach to care, Asclepiades is now considered a pioneer of modern physical therapy, the progenitor of a more humane approach to mental illness, and, as highlighted by Yapijakis, the father of modern molecular medicine.