The Antonine Plague (165-180 AD)
Estimated deaths: 5 million
Also known as the Plague of Galen, after the Greek physician who witnessed the events. This outbreak occurred in the wake of two military campaigns that were both led by Marcus Aurelius of the Roman Empire. The first was the Parthian War in Mesopotamia and then the wars against the Marcomanni in northeastern Italy. Roman troops returning from these campaigns brought back more than just tales of battles and loot, they may also have brought back a strange disease which would kill, at its height, about 2,000 a day in Rome. The plague was even suspected of claiming the life of Emperor Lucius Verus in 169 A.D. Verus’ family name was Antoninus which is the name that the plague has come to be associated with.
The physician Galen was one of the early witnesses of the outbreak and he recorded his observations in a book, Methodus Medendi. In his book, he mentioned that the affliction produces fever, diarrhea, and pharyngitis (inflammation of the throat), as well as a skin eruption, sometimes dry and sometimes pustular, appearing on the ninth day of the illness. Based on these descriptions given by Galen, many modern scholars believe that the plague was actually an outbreak of the smallpox virus.
The plague was estimated to have had a mortality rate of 25% based on the number of deaths and the numbers suspected to have been infected. On his deathbed, Marcus Aurelius is believed to have uttered the following in relation to the plague: “Weep not for me; think rather of the pestilence and the deaths of so many others.” Roman culture, art, and religion were all affected by the disease. Some historians believe that it was the plague that helped with the rise of Christianity in the empire as people began to search for a spiritual answer to the pestilence.
