Morbus Comitialis - Epilepsy

"The HBO series "Rome" depicts a Julius Caesar afflicted with "Morbus Comitialis". I've heard this was the roman name for epilepsy. Can you tell me more about this?"
-from Email

According to He Hath the Falling Sickness, by Stanley M. Aronson, MD, Romans called epilepsy:

"morbus caducus [the falling sickness]; morbus comitialis [disease of the assembly hall.] It was a standing Roman custom to shut down the public assembly [comitia] for ritual purification whenever any legislator experienced a seizure; morbus sacer [the sacred sickness]; or morbus demoniacus [the demonic sickness]."

The Hippocratic Corpus also refers to the disease as the Sacred Disease.

• Comitia Tributa
• Comitia Centuriata

In "Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law," by Adolf Berger [Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Ser., Vol. 43, No. 2. (1953), pp. 333-809], morbus comitialis is explained:

"If a case of epilepsy occurred in a popular assembly [comitia] an immediate interruption and postponement of the gathering took place, since the disease was considered a bad omen."

Caligula © Clipart.com

Some more lore and facts about ancient epilepsy, mostly from "Caligula's Phobias and Philias: Fear of Seizure?" by D. Thomas Benediktson, The Classical Journal, Vol. 87, No. 2. (Dec., 1991 - Jan., 1992), pp. 159-163]:

• Julius Caesar is known to have suffered from epilepsy, as also did Caligula.
• Caligula's depraved behavior may have been the result of his epilepsy.
• In the year 40 Caligula started to try to cultivate the favor of the moon (Latin luna) because the moon was associated with epilepsy.
• This connection led to the medieval development of the word 'lunacy' for epilepsy, and 'lunatic' for someone suffering epilepsy.
• Pliny the Elder suggests a cure for epilepsy is mistletoe cut during the full moon.