King Ariarathes IV of Cappadocia’s impotence in the light of thyroid disease: a multidisciplinar palaeopathological analysis

Abstract

For a long time historical research dismissed the account about King Ariarathes IV of Cappadocia's (reigned 220–163 BC) wife being unable to produce an offspring just as a defamatory explanation concocted by later writers to cover subtler political moves. Having palaeopathologically re-examined the biographical record of King Ariarathes IV in the light of a recently proposed diagnosis of thyroid goiter, by multidisciplinarily combining literary and artistic evidence with biomedical knowledge and rationale, this article proposes an endocrinologically originated sexual dysfunction in King Ariarathes IV and offers a new reading of the subsequent shaming of his spouse.