Antonine Plague

Date

165-180 CE

Category

Social & demographic

Region

Roman Empire (Mediterranean, Europe, Near East, North Africa)

Era

Classical Antiquity

Significance

The Antonine Plague was a devastating pandemic that swept the Roman Empire from approximately 165 to 180 CE, during the joint reign of emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, after whose dynasty it is named.

Modern scholars, drawing on the detailed clinical descriptions of the physician Galen (giving it the alternate name 'the Plague of Galen'), believe the disease was most likely smallpox, though measles has also been proposed. It is thought to have been carried back to the empire by legions returning from the Parthian campaign in Mesopotamia, after which it spread along trade and military routes from the Near East across Italy, Gaul, the Rhine frontier, Greece, Asia Minor, Egypt, and North Africa. Estimates of mortality vary widely, from roughly 7-10 percent of the empire's total population to as high as a quarter or third in the worst-hit cities and legions, with cumulative deaths placed at around 5 to 10 million and reportedly up to 2,000 deaths per day in Rome at its peak. Co-emperor Lucius Verus is believed to have died of the disease in 169 CE, and the resulting manpower shortages weakened the army during the Marcomannic Wars and forced Marcus Aurelius to recruit slaves, gladiators, and Germanic peoples. The pandemic produced lasting demographic, military, and economic strain widely regarded as a turning point that marked the end of the empire's golden age.

Empires active in 165-180 CE

• Roman Empire
  27 BCE – 476 CE
• Kingdom of Funan
  50 CE – 550 CE
• Han Dynasty
  202 BCE – 220 CE
• Zapotec State of Monte Albán
  500 BCE – 800 CE
• Kushan Empire
  30 CE – 375 CE
• Teotihuacan
  100 BCE – 750 CE

Related social & demographic events

• Edict of Caracalla (Constitutio Antoniniana) grants universal citizenship
  212 CE
• Plague of Cyprian
  c. 249-262 CE
• Han Census of 2 CE
  2 CE
• Plague of Athens
  430–426 BCE
• The Plague of Justinian, the first recorded bubonic pandemic
  541–549 CE
• Collapse and Burning of Teotihuacan
  c. 550 CE

Further reading

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

The wider story

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Yuval Noah Harari

Global best-seller on how our species, its populations and societies remade the world.

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