Was Tiberius’ ban of kissing to prevent herpes (cold sores)

[guy]

 

In a previous post I wrote long ago (and had forgotten), I suggested that Tiberius (ruled AD 14-17) had banned public kissing to prevent the spread of herpes (pictured above and below).

 

 

I now have to review the evidence supporting the statement from ancient sources.

 

Suetonius reports that Tiberius prohibited kissing.

The Life of Tiberius, 34.2, Suetonius

2 He issued an edict forbidding general kissing and the exchange of New Year’s gifts after the Kalends of January

 

The reason for this ban, however, remains unclear. The prohibition on public kissing may have been intended to preserve court etiquette and public decorum rather than to address public health concerns. Tiberius may have been more concerned with regulating Roman social behavior and restoring “traditional standards.”

Note: Suetonius is the only ancient source to mention this ban on "general kissing"

"Suetonius never explicitly states that Tiberius’ ban was limited to public kissing; his term—“general kissing”—is broad and unspecified. While modern authors often interpret this as a ban on all public kissing, this is a subjective interpretation rather than a definitive ancient fact. Since Suetonius provides no specifics on where the ban was in effect, who it affected, or how it was enforced, scholars generally assume it concerned public decorum, given Tiberius’ reputation for austerity and other etiquette measures. Ultimately, the actual extent of the edict remains unknown: Suetonius is the only ancient source, and his brief mention leaves it unclear whether the ban applied to public greetings, court conduct, or broader social practices."

 

It’s interesting that near-contemporary Pliny the Elder (AD 23-79) mentions a facial fungal infection (tinea barbae or sycosis barbae, pictured below):

 

 

"Mentagra was a notorious skin disease in early Imperial Rome, first noted during the reign of Tiberius. Pliny the Elder describes it in Natural History (AD 77) as a disfiguring eruption that began on the chin and spread across the beard, cheeks, neck, chest, and even the hands. The lesions were scaly, painful, and so unsightly that Pliny remarked death might be preferable to enduring them. The name itself is a Roman joke: mentum (chin) combined with agra (attack). Although initially associated with fashionable elites—its spread linked to intimate contact such as kissing—later medical writers, including Galen, Archigenes, and Celsus, classified it under sycosis, or “wild lichen,” a follicular disease of the beard region. Pliny also recorded herbal treatments such as plantago and lichen mixed with honey, situating mentagra within broader Roman anxieties about “new diseases” arising from luxury, excess, and moral decline."

Summary: The precise reasons for the ban on public kissing remain uncertain, possibly related to public health concerns or issues of decorum and morality. Nonetheless, this ban is recorded in contemporary reports.

 

Edited 49 minutes ago by guy