Daily History Challenge · No. 25 · Thursday 23 July 2026 · Chain
Puzzle No. 25: Chain
The anchor was Plague of Cyprian (249 CE). Every challenger is listed below with its year.
The anchor
The Plague of Cyprian was a devastating pandemic that swept the Roman Empire from approximately 249 CE, reaching Rome by 251 and persisting in waves until around 262-270 CE. It takes its name from Cyprian, the bishop of Carthage, whose treatise De mortalitate (On Mortality) provides the principal eyewitness account, describing victims afflicted with violent fever, diarrhea, vomiting, deafness, blindness, and limb paralysis. Likely originating in Ethiopia or Egypt and spreading via Alexandria, the disease reportedly killed up to 5,000 people a day in Rome at its height and may have claimed Emperor Hostilian (251) and later Claudius II Gothicus (270). The resulting manpower shortages crippled the army and agriculture, deepening the political and economic turmoil of the Crisis of the Third Century. The Christian response of caring for the sick and burying the dead is often credited with strengthening the appeal and spread of Christianity across the empire, while the pathogen's precise identity, possibly a viral hemorrhagic fever, smallpox, or measles, remains debated.
The 10 challengers, in order of date
Before Plague of Cyprian
Before Plague of Cyprian
After Plague of Cyprian
After Plague of Cyprian
After Plague of Cyprian
After Plague of Cyprian
After Plague of Cyprian
After Plague of Cyprian
After Plague of Cyprian
After Plague of Cyprian