![]() ![]() “Any physical ailment wouldn’t have helped, whether it was epilepsy of something else. “I’ve no idea if it’s medically plausible, but it’s interesting, and it would matter,” he said. The doctors argue that for a man of Caesar’s prominence, there are simply too few detailed accounts of his attacks for the diagnosis to be credible.Ĭhristopher Pelling, professor of Greek at Oxford University, said that Caesar’s disease has long been thought of as epilepsy. “Even if Caesar participated in an active lifestyle and may have benefited from a Mediterranean diet, there is the added possibility of genetic predisposition towards cardiovascular disease,” the doctors write.Īt the time of Caesar’s reign, epilepsy was considered a “sacred disease”, and it may have suited him, and his chosen heir, Octavian, to maintain that he suffered from the disorder. The deaths could have resulted from epilepsy, but Galassi and Ashrafian argue in the journal Neurological Sciences that a stroke or heart attack seem more likely. The doctors see support for their theory in the works of Pliny the Elder, who noted that both Caesar’s father and another forefather died without apparent cause while putting on their shoes. Our theory is simpler and more logical,” he said. “We think others start from the assumption that he had epilepsy. “The idea that he was epileptic is unfounded,” Galassi told the Guardian. Another attack might account for his failure to stand up as senators honoured him, an act that was interpreted as defiant. Caesar’s complexion changed, he began to shake, and he dropped a handful of documents on hearing the great orator. Towards the end of his life, Caesar suffered from depression and his personality changed, potentially through damage to his brain caused by strokes.Ī mini-stroke may also have led to Caesar’s apparently emotional response to a speech by Cicero in his later years. Until now, the possibility that Caesar suffered from cardiovascular disease, or was prone to strokes, has been largely ruled out because he was apparently otherwise well in private and state affairs.īut Galassi and Ashrafian claim that a series of mini-strokes could explain incidents recorded by scholars that epilepsy cannot. But his rule was cut short when he was assassinated in the Senate on March 15, 44BC. “All of the symptoms reported in Caesar’s life are compatible with him having multiple mini-strokes,” said Francesco Galassi, a medical doctor at Imperial who conducted the analysis with Hutan Ashrafian, a surgeon at the college.īorn in 100BC, Caesar rose swiftly through the political system, conquered Gaul, and crossed the Rubicon river under arms, sparking the civil war that ultimately left him dictator of Rome. They believe that rather than suffering from late onset epilepsy, Julius Caesar had a number of mini-strokes that damaged him physically and triggered changes in his mental state too. The diagnosis has prevailed for centuries since, though scholars have not been short of other proposals, including bad migraines and seizures brought on by malaria or a parasitic brain infection caught during his Egyptian campaign.īut doctors at Imperial College, London, argue in new research that the symptoms described in Greek and Roman writings point to a different diagnosis entirely. Who was Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (12 July 100 BC 15 March 44 BC) was an important Roman general and politician who played a crucial role in the fall of the Roman Republic and the birth of the Roman Empire. In his biography of Caesar, the Greek historian Plutarch suggested the fall was an epileptic attack. Moments later, he was mobbed by the group, as Cimber grabbed Caesar’s shoulders and pulled the toga away from his neck – the signal to begin the attack.In one of the most prominent incidents, Caesar collapsed at the battle of Thapsus in 46BC and had to be carried to safety. According to his account, Caesar entered the meeting hall, took his seat at the podium, and was presented with a petition by senator Tillius Cimber, one of the main conspirators. Writing at the beginning of 2nd century AD, some 150 years after the events, Greek historian Plutarch, born in Chaeronea, Boeotia, provides one of the most detailed descriptions of the assassination. We also know the main ringleaders were Brutus and Cassius, the former being the son of Caesar’s former lover, Servilia. We know that the assassination took place during a meeting of the Senate at the Curia of Pompey, a meeting hall inside the Theatre of Pompey in the heart of ancient Rome, and at least 60 senators were party to the conspiracy. Nevertheless, some details emerge with chilling clarity. ![]() ![]() Assassinated by a group of senators calling themselves the “Liberators,” the precise details of Caesar’s untimely death continue to be a source of morbid speculation, clouded by conflicting accounts by the ancient writers. ![]()
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