What is the "Disease of the Assembly Hall"?

In ancient Rome, epilepsy was known as the Morbus Comitialis ('disease of the assembly hall') and was seen as a curse from the gods. In northern Italy, epilepsy was once traditionally known as Saint Valentine's malady.

Epilepsy is a chronic disorder, the hallmark of which is recurrent, unprovoked seizures. Many people with epilepsy have more than one type of seizure and may have other symptoms of neurological problems as well.

More Info: en.wikipedia.org

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35 Comments

Rosie Wentra

Doesn't completely explain why it was called, "Disease of the Assembly hall."

June Abramowitz

Nice to learn something new!

Player

Never heard epilepsy called this. Have heard it called the falling sickness. The answer to the question is not explained.

Kath Thomson

Boyd Tracy, me too!

✨KRISTA✨

Ken Putnam, Oh no, she is still lurking about QC with that "additional information in the link provided" 😒 and insulting players!?!🙄 (I was hoping we were rid of her and her rude comments) DAMFB!

catmom

Gerry Peck, Glad all that worked out as well as possible. Sorry that you went thru all that.

james parrillo

earlepg, I thought it may have been shingles, since that is contagious, causing the initial chicken pox, if the receiver has not had them. Thank you, Christine, James' wife

Jas Newman

Phoebe Figalily, The "More Info" link is just shy of 10,000 words. I've combed through it and found the term "Assembly Hall" mentioned only once—as a translation of the Latin term "morbus comitialis," so the affliction was called "morbus comitialis," not "the Assembly Hall" disease. Without an explanation of why, there is no reason we should think anyone has ever called epilepsy "the Assembly Hall disease."

lmoores

Poorly worded. I was looking for Legionaires Disease.

earlepg

Phoebe Figalily, I spent considerable time looking through the article. All I found in the article was the same statement that the author used about it in the History section. The only thing that I saw that could refer to the statement was in the prior paragraph it said "In Ancient Rome people did not eat or drink with the same pottery as that used by someone who was affected". Those two statements were not drawn together as something related. Is that what you seemed to find, or did you see something more definitive that I missed? I agree with Ken's argument that the author to defend or explain his preferred option in the author's explanation so that everyone can see that the preferred option is indeed correct, otherwise the work to present it is for naught.

Ken Putnam

Phoebe Figalily, "Phoebe Figalily" I keep telling you to shut up about this No We do NOT need to follow the reference The Explanation NEEDS to completely defend the "correct answer"

Ken Putnam

"Phoebe Figalily" I keep telling you to shut up about this No We do NOT need to follow the reference The Explanation NEEDS to completely defend the "correct answer"