Julius Caesar's Disease by Francesco M. Galassi Hutan Ashrafian

Author:Francesco M. Galassi, Hutan Ashrafian [Francesco M. Galassi, Hutan Ashrafian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Ancient, Rome, Medical, Biography & Autobiography, Historical
ISBN: 9781473870802
Google: AOpPDgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
Published: 2016-11-30T00:24:58+00:00

Chapter Three

Doubting Epilepsy in Recent Times: An Imperial and Clinical Approach

In the next chapter we will sum up all that has been discussed so far, radically overturn the philological foundations that have allowed the establishment of the epileptic theory and finally present our own historico-clinical interpretation of the facts. But first, we wish to offer a thorough overview of the research that since the nineteenth century has not contented itself with looking for the exact or most likely cause of an a priori accepted diagnosis of epilepsy, but has instead courageously questioned the very assumption that Julius Caesar really was an epileptic. The attempts to achieve that ambitious goal have been very few – four to be precise over the course of about 100 years; over 150 years, if we include our own 2015 study (and this very tome) – and the amount of material available for reassessment and discussion is really scant, including brief articles and dissertations that are not even comparable with the bevy of richly argued and spectacularly presented ones we explored in Chapter Two. For this reason, classical scholarship has spoken of negative views or scepticism about Caesar’s epilepsy, yet no real ‘school of thought’ has ever had the opportunity to structure itself organically in the historical field, only finding some fertile humus in clinical discourse. Despite such an unfortunate verification, they do represent invaluable material in any serious debate on the health of Julius Caesar. It will, however, shortly appear evident how the presented counter-theories may not always satisfy historical and clinical criteria and, as we carefully did with the epileptic-accepting hypotheses discussed earlier, we will not fail to highlight them. Nonetheless, it is not the solution to Caesar’s health that they propose which counts most here, it is what arguments they produced to underline the unlikelihood of Caesar having epilepsy that we aim to rediscover. With respect to this, we certainly took another path from these studies, but in questioning the very foundations of the epileptic castle, we have followed in their footsteps.

Napoleon III of France – Natural Weight Loss and Nervous Crises (1865–1866)

Although in the previous chapter we expressed our strong scepticism about Hughes’s theory that a family tree of epilepsy may be identified in the Julio- Claudian house, we certainly acknowledge that the scholar’s paper has two chief merits. One is the already cited attention for the first time properly paid to Caesar’s ancestors; although Kanngiesser had already focused on the death of Caesar’s father, Hughes also recalled the similar death of his great grandfather. We do not agree with the conclusion that Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP) is the most likely diagnosis, yet bringing those two sudden deaths under the clinical and historical spotlight was undoubtedly a fundamental step. The other commendable aspect of that 2004 study is the richness of the bibliography, probably the most complete to have appeared both in historical and medical articles on the topic, before Montemurro et al.’s 2015 publication featuring a new diagnosis and a general review, and obviously this book which sums up the whole matter.

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