Galen and the Debate on Solecism in the II Century AD

Abstract

The article reconstructs Galen’s position on the phenomenon of solecism, by examining the occurrences of σολοικίζω  and terms related to it in the Galenic corpus. Solecism was debated in the II century A.D. as part of the more general ‘language issue’. Against the Atticistic trends that were very widespread at that time, Galen appears to be relatively tolerant of solecisms which does not imply a distortion of medical knowledge. Yet, his attitude is very different as regards linguistic errors due to a mistaken view of physical and medical theories.