Editing Julius Caesar (section)

===Health and physical appearance===
[[File:Gaius Iulius Caesar (Vatican Museum).jpg|thumb|upright|The [[Chiaramonti Caesar]] bust, a posthumous portrait in marble, 44–30 BC, [[Museo Pio-Clementino]], [[Vatican Museums]]]]

Based on remarks by Plutarch<ref>{{harvnb|Plut. ''Caes.''|loc=17, 45, 60}}; {{harvnb|Suet. ''Iul.''|loc=45}}.</ref> ({{circa|46}} – {{circa|120s AD}}), Caesar is sometimes thought to have suffered from [[epilepsy]]. Modern scholarship is sharply divided on the subject, and some scholars believe that he was plagued by malaria, particularly during the Sullan proscriptions of the 80s&nbsp;BC.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ridley |first=Ronald T. |date=2000 |title=The Dictator's Mistake: Caesar's Escape from Sulla |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4436576 |journal=Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte |volume=49 |issue=2 |pages=211–29 |jstor=4436576 |issn=0018-2311}} Ridley cites:
* {{cite journal |last=Kanngiesser |first=F |title=Notes on the pathology of the Julian dynasty |year=1912 |journal=Glasgow Medical Journal |volume=77 |pages=428–32 |ref=none }}
* {{Cite journal |last=Cawthorne |first=Terence |date=1958 |title=Julius caesar and the falling sickness |url=http://doi.wiley.com/10.1288/00005537-195808000-00005 |journal=The Laryngoscope |volume=68 |issue=8 |pages=1442–1450 |doi=10.1288/00005537-195808000-00005|pmid=13576900 |s2cid=34788441 |ref=none | issn=0023-852X}}
* {{Cite book |last=Temkin |first=Owsei |title=The falling sickness: a history of epilepsy from the Greeks to the beginnings of modern neurology |date=1971 |orig-date=1945 |isbn=0-8018-1211-9 |edition=Revised |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |oclc=208839 |page=162 |ref=none }}</ref> Other scholars contend his epileptic seizures were due to a [[neurocysticercosis|parasitic infection in the brain]] by a tapeworm.<ref name="bruschi">{{Cite journal |last=Bruschi |first=Fabrizio |date=2011 |title=Was Julius Caesar's epilepsy due to neurocysticercosis? |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1471492211001139 |journal=Trends in Parasitology |volume=27 |issue=9 |pages=373–74 |doi=10.1016/j.pt.2011.06.001|pmid=21757405 }}</ref><ref name="mclachlan">{{Cite journal |last=McLachlan |first=Richard S |date=2010 |title=Julius Caesar's late onset epilepsy: a case of historic proportions |journal=Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences |volume=37 |issue=5 |pages=557–561 |doi=10.1017/S0317167100010696 |pmid=21059498 |s2cid=24082872 |issn=0317-1671|doi-access=free }}</ref>

Caesar had four documented episodes of what may have been complex partial seizures. He may additionally have had [[absence seizure]]s in his youth. The earliest accounts of these seizures were made by the biographer Suetonius, who was born after Caesar died. The claim of epilepsy is countered among some medical historians by a claim of [[hypoglycemia]], which can cause epileptoid seizures.<ref name="Hughes2004Caesar">{{cite journal |last=Hughes |first=John R |display-authors=etal |title=Dictator perpetuus: Julius Caesar – Did he have seizures? If so, what was the etiology? |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S152550500400160X |journal=Epilepsy & Behavior |volume=5 |issue=5 |pages=756–64 |date=2004 |doi=10.1016/j.yebeh.2004.05.006|pmid=15380131 |s2cid=34640921 }}</ref><ref name="Gomez1995">{{cite journal |last=Gomez |first=J G |display-authors=etal |date=1995 |title=Was Julius Caesar's epilepsy due to a brain tumor? |url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7738524 |journal=Journal of the Florida Medical Association |volume=82 |issue=3 |pages=199–201 |issn=0015-4148 |pmid=7738524}}</ref>

A line from [[Julius Caesar (play)|Shakespeare's ''Julius Caesar'']] has sometimes been taken to mean that he was deaf in one ear: "Come on my right hand, for this ear is deaf."<ref>William Shakespeare, ''Julius Caesar'' I.ii.209.</ref> No classical source mentions hearing impairment in connection with Caesar. The playwright may have been making metaphorical use of a passage in Plutarch that does not refer to deafness at all, but rather to a gesture Alexander of Macedon customarily made. By covering his ear, Alexander indicated that he had turned his attention from an accusation in order to hear the defence.{{sfn|Paterson|2009|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=gzOXLGbIIYwC&q=julius+caesar+deaf&pg=PT150 130]}}

Francesco M. Galassi and Hutan Ashrafian suggest that Caesar's behavioural manifestations{{snd}}headaches, vertigo, falls (possibly caused by muscle weakness due to nerve damage), sensory deficit, giddiness and insensibility{{snd}}and syncopal episodes were the results of cerebrovascular episodes, not epilepsy. Pliny the Elder reports in his ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]'' that Caesar's father and forefather died without apparent cause while putting on their shoes.<ref>Pliny, ''Natural History'',  [http://attalus.org/translate/pliny_hn7c.html#181 vii.181]</ref> These events can be more readily associated with cardiovascular complications from a stroke episode or lethal heart attack. Caesar possibly had a genetic predisposition for cardiovascular disease.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Galassi |first1=Francesco M. |last2=Ashrafian |first2=Hutan |date=2015 |title=Has the diagnosis of a stroke been overlooked in the symptoms of Julius Caesar? |url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25820216 |journal=Neurological Sciences |volume=36 |issue=8 |pages=1521–22 |doi=10.1007/s10072-015-2191-4 |issn=1590-3478 |pmid=25820216|s2cid=11730078 }}</ref>

[[Suetonius]] ({{circa|69}} – {{circa|122 AD}}) describes Caesar as "tall of stature with a fair complexion, shapely limbs, a somewhat full face, and keen black eyes".<ref>{{harvnb|Suet. ''Iul.''|loc=45}}. ''excelsa statura, colore candido, teretibus membris, ore paulo pleniore, nigris vegetisque oculis''.</ref> He adds that the [[Hair loss|balding]] Caesar was sensitive to teasing on the subject, and therefore had a [[Comb over|combover]]. Suetonius reports that Caesar was thus especially pleased to be granted the honour of wearing a wreath at all times.<ref>{{harvnb|Suet. ''Iul.''|loc=45}} ''"Circa corporis... laureae coronae perpetuo gestandae."''</ref>