Antonine Plague
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The Antonine Plague of AD 165 to 180, also known as the Plague of Galen, was a prolonged and destructive epidemic, which affected the Roman Empire. It was possibly contracted and spread by soldiers wh
A group of physicians in an image from the Vienna Dioscurides. Galen, shown at the top centre, was an eyewitness to the Antonine Plague.
Memorial plaque dedicated by legionary veterans and survivors
A Roman coin commemorating the victories of Marcus Aurelius in the Marcomannic Wars against the Germanic tribes along the Danube frontier in the early 170s AD
Plague of Cyprian
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The Plague of Cyprian was a pandemic which afflicted the Roman Empire from about AD 249 to 262, or 251/2 to 270. The plague is thought to have caused widespread manpower shortages for food production
Antonine Plague
…but scholars have generally preferred to diagnose it as smallpox. The historian William H. McNeill asserts that the Antonine Plague and the later Plague of Cyprian (251–c. 270) were outbreaks of two different diseases, one of smallpox and one of measles but not necessarily in that order. The severe devastation to…
16th-century painting of Saint Cyprian, who documented the plague in his writings