Infectious diseases

Name: Plague Antonine

Year: 165-180 AD

Dead: 5-10 million

The Antonine plague takes its name from the lineage of the Antonini, whose reign coincided with the epidemic; it is also known as the plague of Galen, from the name of the Greek doctor who described it.

Although the identity of the pathogen is not known, the few written sources and some busts of the time would suggest smallpox.

The first cases were registered in 165 AD. C. in the Mesopotamian city of Nisibis, just before the Roman conquest; from there, soldiers returning from the countryside would spread the disease. However, the epidemic could have started in China or in the Horn of Africa.

The spread was favored by the Parthian war in Mesopotamia and by the Marcomannic war between northeastern Italy and the Pannonian lowlands. It had a devastating effect on Roman civilization, to the point that, according to many, it created the conditions for the decline and fall of the Western Empire.

Source: web