À procura de doenças neurológicas na dinastia Júlio-Claudiana do Império Romano

Camargo, Carlos Henrique Ferreira; Teive, Hélio Afonso Ghizoni

doi:10.1590/0004-282X20170174

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HISTORICAL NOTE • Arq. Neuro-Psiquiatr. 76 (1) • Jan 2018 • https://doi.org/10.1590/0004-282X20170174 copiar

À procura de doenças neurológicas na dinastia Júlio-Claudiana do Império Romano

Autoria SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

RESUMO

A gens Iulia era uma das mais antigas famílias da Roma Antiga, com membros que chegaram aos mais altos cargos. Ficaram na história por causa de Julius Caesar, ditador perpétuo, pai adotivo do primeiro imperador Augustus, por meio de quem seu nome passou para a dinastia Julio-Claudian com os imperadores Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius e Nero. Descrições de doenças desses imperadores e de alguns de seus familiares podem nos remeter a diagnósticos como epilepsia, distonia, demência, encefalites, neurossífilis, neuropatias periféricas, dislexia, migrânea e distúrbios do sono. No contexto histórico da Roma antiga, a possibilidade de doenças infecciosas e relacionadas ao modo de vida libertino é bastante grande. Entretanto, existe a possibilidade de que algumas dessas doenças tenham ocorrido por transmissão genética.

doenças do sistema nervoso; neurologia; artigo histórico; história da medicina

Julio-Claudian family	Possible neurological disorders
Dictator
Julius Caesar	Epilepsy, headache (possibly migraine)
Emperors
Augustus	Migraine, depression, insomnia, diurnal somnolence (possibly epilepsy)
	Encephalitis
	Dyslexia
	Peripheral neuropathies
Tiberius	Depression, alcoholism
	Segmental dystonia (possibly chorea)
	Parkinsonism
	Dementia (alcohol, or with parkinsonism)
Caligula	Epilepsy
	Insomnia
	Encephalitis (possibly herpetic)
Claudius	Generalized dystonia (possibly DYT6)
Nero	Neurosyphilis
Others
Gaius Caesar	Sudden unexplained death in epilepsy
Caesariun	Epilepsy
Octavia	Epilepsy
Agrippa Postumus	Learning disorder (possibly ADHA)
Brittanicus	Epilepsy

Act I Scene II (fragment).
A public place.
Flourish. Enter CAESAR; ANTONY, for the course; CALPURNIA, PORTIA, DECIUS BRUTUS, CICERO, BRUTUS, CASSIUS, and CASCA; a great crowd following, among them a Soothsayer
BRUTUS	CASSIUS
Tell us the manner of it, gentle Casca.	No, Caesar hath it not; but you and I, and honest Casca, we have the falling sickness.
CASCA	CASCA
I can as well be hanged as tell the manner of it: it was mere foolery; I did not mark it. I saw Mark Antony offer him a crown; — yet ‘twas not a crown neither, ‘twas one of these coronets; — and, as I told you, he put it by once: but, for all that, to my thinking, he would fain have had it. Then he offered it to him again; then he put it by again: but, to my thinking, he was very loath to lay his fingers off it. And then he offered it the third time; he put it the third time by: and still as he refused it, the rabblement hooted and clapped their chapped hands and threw up their sweaty night-caps and uttered such a deal of stinking breath because Caesar refused the crown that it had almost choked Caesar; for he swounded and fell down at it: and for mine own part, I durst not laugh, for fear of opening my lips and receiving the bad air.	I know not what you mean by that; but, I am sure, Caesar fell down. If the tag-rag people did not clap him and hiss him, according as he pleased and displeased them, as they use to do the players in the theatre, I am no true man.
CASSIUS	BRUTUS
But, soft, I pray you: what, did Caesar swound?	What said he when he came unto himself?
CASCA	CASCA
He fell down in the market-place, and foamed at mouth, and was speechless.	Marry, before he fell down, when he perceived the common herd was glad he refused the crown, he plucked me ope his doublet and offered them his throat to cut. An I had been a man of any occupation, if I would not have taken him at a word, I would I might go to hell among the rogues. And so he fell. When he came to himself again, he said, If he had done or said anything amiss, he desired their worships to think it was his infirmity. Three or four wenches, where I stood, cried ‘Alas, good soul!’ and forgave him with all their hearts: but there’s no heed to be taken of them; if Caesar had stabbed their mothers, they would have done no less.
BRUTUS
‘Tis very like: he hath the falling sickness.

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[1] Correspondence: Carlos Henrique Ferreira Camargo; Hospital Universitário da Universidade Estadual de Ponta Grossa; Al. Nabuco de Araújo, 601; 84032-510 Ponta Grossa PR, Brasil; E-mail: chcamargo@uol.com.br