Journal of Virology and Viral Diseases (ISSN: 2770-8292) Open Access Research Article
Volume 2 – Issue 2
The Death of Germanicus: Disease or Murder? Giovanni Meledandri* Guglielmo Marconi University, Department of Human Sciences *
Corresponding author: Giovanni Meledandri, Guglielmo Marconi University, Department of Human Sciences, email:
g.meledandri@unimarconi.it
Received date: 01 April, 2022 | Citation: Meledandri
G.
(2022)
Accepted date: 26 April, 2022 | The
Death
of
Germanicus:
Disease
Published date: 30 April, 2022 or
Murder?
J
Virol
Viral
Dis
2(2):
doi
https://doi.org/10.54289/JVVD2200107 Copyright: © 2022 Meledandri G. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Summary Julius Caesar Germanicus died on Oct. 10th 19 C.E., in Epidaphne near Antioch of Syria, under mysterious circumstances, after days of unexplained suffering [1, 2, 3], at the age of 33 (uncertain 34), under the reign of Tiberius. He himself invoked poisoning while some historians lean towards a disease. The case, whose circumstances are controversial both from a political and a medical point of view, remains, even today, difficult to explain and represents a real historical enigma. The author traces the historical circumstances that preceded the premature death of a man, regarded as possible candidate for the throne of Rome Emperor, analyzed the historical sources and carefully considered any disease that might have affected Germanicus, causing his death. Poisons, in use at the time, are also taken in account. All the etiological conditions compatible with the clinical course preceding to Germanicus' death were compared and processed using multivariate analysis test, in order to obtain a reliable estimate of a correlation measure associated with the premature death of the famous Roman aristocrat. According to the test, and to Josephus Flavius’ historical record, the author concludes that poisoning was the cause of Germanicus death. Keywords: virus, diseases, Romans, Germanicus, poison, microbiology, sudden death, history “ferebatur Germanico per ambages, ut mos oraculis, maturum exitum cecinisse.” (Tac. Ann. II, 54.4) [1]. “Rumor had it that, in the cryptic fashion of oracles, it foretold Germanicus early death” [2].
Introduction
events, the title was inherited by his son Gaius Julius Caesar
According to historians, Germanicus died suddenly and
Augustus Germanicus, better known by the nickname of
mysteriously in Epidaphne, near Antioch, on Oct. 10th 19
Caligula.
C.E., at the age of 33, under the reign of Tiberius, confiding
The cause of Germanicus' premature death is, still today,
to his wife Agrippina the suspicion of having been poisoned
counted among the enigmas of history. This article aims to
by Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso, the governor of the Province of
examine, through an unprecedented approach (philological,
Syria.
clinical,
He was appointed to be Emperor, as a natural heir in the line
epidemiologically relevant aspects of the story, in order to
of descent. After his death, following complex dynastic
propose an answer to the question "Was Germanicus' death
and
statistical),
the
sources
due to an illness or consequence of a crime?"
www.acquirepublications.org/JVVD
and
the