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 by Suetonius. 

 

Edited 21 hours ago by guy

[guidoLaMoto]

https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Suet.+Tib.+34.2&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0061 The line in the original Latin is "Cotidiana oscula edicto prohibit...." = "He prohibited by edict everyday kisses..." ....(Maybe Tiberius had the same aversion to the custom of casual kisses of greetings among relative strangers that Jerry Seinfeld had in the episode about the physical therapist with the bad hairdo?)

The full chapter in Suetonius (34) is more about frugality & conservatism with no mention of health matters. https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Tiberius*.html#ref53

In regards Pliny's mention of "lichen," it doesn't sound like the tinea barbis of today. He describes it as usually starting on the chin and spreading rapidly to the whole face, sparing only the eyes, and on down the neck, chest and hands, and being very nasty. https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137%3Abook%3D26%3Achapter%3D2 He mentions this in the section about new diseases being encountered in Rome and Europe in general.....As the footnote mentions, someone named Littre (Chu fu?*) suggests they're talking about leprosy. (The English translation given in the Perseus ref here says it spreads inside the mouth, but there's no basis for that in the Latin version.)

I'm always reluctant to attribute diseases described in ancient times to a modern viral disease, given that viruses generally mutate so quickly. It would be remarkable for a virus to persist unchanged for even 200 years, let alone 2000.

* Chu fu-- Sicilian for "Who dat?"