Asclepiades (124 or 129 - 40 BC) was an Ancient Greek physician born at Bithynia in Asia Minor and flourished at Rome, where he established Greek medicine near the end of the 2nd century BCE. He attempted to build a new theory of disease, based on the flow of atoms through pores in the body. His treatments sought to restore harmony through the use of diet, exercise, and bathing. He arranged diseases into two great classes of Acute and Chronic. Acute diseases were caused essentially by a constriction of the pores, or an obstruction of them by an excess of atoms; the Chronic were caused by a relaxation of the pores or a deficiency of atoms. He advocated humane treatment of mental disorders, and had insane persons freed from confinement and treated them with natural therapy, such as diet and massages. His teachings are surprisingly modern and he is considered to be a pioneer physician in psychotherapy, physical therapy and molecular medicine. It is not known when he died, except that it was at an advanced age.