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About this Episode
What we honestly have is ancient testimony, not “medical proof.
What the ancient sources actually say
Two major biographers written well after Caesar’s death report episodes that sound like seizures:
Suetonius (writing ~150 years later) says Caesar was “twice attacked by the falling sickness” during his campaigns, and also mentions fainting fits and nightmares later in life.
Plutarch also describes Caesar as having episodes of illness and uses them at times to explain his behavior in public life (though Plutarch’s descriptions are not clinical “case notes”).
And in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Casca calls it “the falling sickness”—that’s Shakespeare drawing on the same tradition rather than independent medical evidence. His exact words are He - meaning Julius Caesar - fell down in the market-place, and foamed at the mouth, and was speechless.
Romans often used morbus comitialis for what we’d now associate with epilepsy (the idea being that a seizure could halt a public assembly).
So: yes, the term points toward epilepsy—but it’s still a label from ancient writers, not a diagnosis with modern criteria.
How reliable is it?
Reasonably important, but not ironclad:
These accounts come from biographies written later, using earlier sources we don’t always have, and they can mix observation, hearsay, and moral storytelling.
“Falling sickness” could have been applied loosely to several kinds of sudden collapse—not only epilepsy.
What might it have been, in modern terms?
There’s genuine debate. Some modern clinicians/historians argue the episodes may fit transient ischemic attacks (mini-strokes) or other causes of sudden fainting/weakness rather than epilepsy.
Others still argue that “late-onset epilepsy” remains plausible based on the descriptions.
Do we have reliable proof? No—no medical records, no exam notes, no contemporary clinical description.
Do we have credible ancient reports that Caesar had episodes called “falling sickness”? Yes, especially Suetonius.
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Hosts & Guests
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