The emperor of diseases5/9/2023 ![]() ![]() Wikimedia Commons An 1820 portrait of Galen, the Greek physician who documented the Antonine Plague. The Antonine Plague Spreads Through Ancient Rome Indeed, the most powerful empire of its time was utterly helpless in the face of this invisible killer. ![]() The Antonine Plague rendered the empire of Ancient Rome a kind of Hell. Known as both the Antonine Plague and the Plague of Galen, the pandemic did eventually subside, seemingly as mysteriously as it had come. Nearly ten percent of the empire perished this way. Others experienced red and black papules on the skin, foul breath, and black diarrhea. Victims suffered for two weeks from fever, vomiting, thirstiness, coughing, and a swollen throat. Even though how the pandemic began remains unknown, one Greek physician named Galen managed to document the outbreak itself in startling detail. The disease was first cited during the reign of the last of the Five Good Emperors, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, in 165 or 166 A.D. The Roman Empire was so crippled by the Antonine Plague that many scholars believe it hastened the empire's demise.Īt the height of the Antonine Plague, up to 3,000 ancient Romans dropped dead every single day. ![]()
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