By DAVID NIESEL and NORBERT HERZOG
It has long been thought that the Roman ruler Julius Caesar had an affliction of the gods, or in modern terms, epilepsy. However, a new theory postulates that he might have experienced a series of small strokes instead.
Gaius Julius Caesar was born on the July 12 or 13, 100 B.C., into the Julii family of the Caesar clan, which was already well-entrenched in Roman politics. Caesar’s first job with the government was as a prosecuting attorney in 78 B.C., and he was first elected in 69 B.C. as a quaestor, a financial administrator. He then became governor of Farther Spain — Portugal and Andalusia — for a year in 61 B.C., and upon his return to Rome campaigned for and was elected to the Consul of Rome. A year later, he became the governor of Gaul, or present-day France, holding it against invaders from Germany and Britain and adding other territory up to the Rhine River. He returned to Rome with his army in 49 B.C., triggering a year-long Civil War with the Roman senate and their republican forces. He won and followed the leader of the republican forces, who had fled to Egypt but was soon assassinated. While in Egypt, Caesar became romantically involved with Cleopatra, Egypt’s last queen.
Caesar made himself dictator, which was meant to be temporary, but in 45 B.C. he made himself dictator for life. This upset powerful republican senators, who assassinated Caesar on the Ides — fifteenth — of March in 44 B.C.. This ignited another Civil War that brought down the Roman Republic and saw the elevation of Caesar’s nephew, Octavian, to the first emperor of Rome. Two years after his death, the Senate declared Julius Caesar a god in the Roman religion. And the rest, as they say, is history.
For centuries, historians, writers and movie producers believed that Caesar suffered from epilepsy. For example, in both the 1963 film “Cleopatra” starring Elizabeth Taylor and Rex Harrison and the HBO series “Rome,” the character of Caesar is shown having what is apparently an epileptic seizure. However, a new theory suggests that rather than epilepsy, Caesar suffered a series of transient ischemic attacks, or mini-strokes, that affected his mental state and general health. Given the available data from ancient writings, this new explanation is a simpler, more logical diagnosis given his symptoms.
Caesar did not document his illnesses. However, other ancient chroniclers of his life, such as Suetonius, wrote about “sudden fainting fits” and nightmares while Appian wrote of his convulsions. Plutarch wrote that Caesar suffered “distemper of the head” and “epileptic fits.” Plutarch also documented that Caesar collapsed during military campaigns in Cordoba, Spain, in 46 B.C. and was forced to retire from the Battle of Thapsus in what is now Tunisia.
It is unusual for epilepsy to first strike in adults, and there is no evidence of Caesar having had it as a child. His symptoms seem to have begun in adulthood and included limb weakness, dizziness and headaches along with an unpredictable personality and depression, all of which are compatible with mini-strokes. We are unlikely to ever prove what ailed Caesar, but his mysterious illness did not stop him from becoming one of Rome’s greatest generals and politicians.
Medical Discovery News is a weekly radio and print broadcast highlighting medical and scientific breakthroughs hosted by professor emeritus Norbert Herzog and professor David Niesel, biomedical scientists at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. Learn more at www.medicaldiscoverynews.com.