Antonine plague

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Marc Aurel, after whom the Antonine plague is named

The Antonine Plague was a pandemic that ruled almost the entire area of ​​the Roman Empire from 165 to 180 (possibly up to 190) . It is named after the gentile name of the Roman emperor Mark Aurel († 180), who was actually called Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. The hypothesis that this and his co-regent Lucius Verus († 169) fell victim to the epidemic is controversial .

Based on the ancient descriptions of the symptoms, it can be assumed that the disease was not the actual plague in the medical sense, but a particularly virulent strain of smallpox , which at that time had been endemic in the Orient for a long time . The contemporary doctor Galen describes symptoms 168 in his treatise Methodus medendi as fever, diarrhea and sore throat, as well as a macular to pustular rash from around the ninth day of illness. This description can best be reconciled with smallpox. In some cases, however, it is also considered that it was measles .

history

First appearance

According to ancient tradition , the Antonine plague was brought in from Mesopotamia by returning legionaries who had fought against the Parthians under Vologaeses IV under the command of Lucius Verus . After the Romans stormed the city of Seleukia-Ctesiphon on the Tigris , extensive looting took place, in which the Temple of Apollo is said to have not been spared. The late antique historian Ammianus Marcellinus (around 390 AD) relates that soon after these excesses an exanthematic disease broke out among the legionaries , which was almost always fatal, and claims that this occurred after looters broke a consecrated vessel in the temple , from which a poison breath trapped inside (vapors from naphtha sources in Babylon) escaped. This tale may have been spread later by Chaldean temple priests to make the plague appear as a divine punishment.

Propagation phase

The first occurrence of the disease in the empire is attested in 165 in the north Mesopotamian Nisibis . From there it quickly spread throughout the empire, over densely populated cities like Smyrna , Ephesus and Athens , only to appear in Rome a year later . Thanks to the good logistics within the Roman Empire, the heavily frequented road connections, but also by sea, it even reached such remote areas as Britain .

It must have raged particularly hard in the Iberian provinces and on the Italian peninsula. In Rome itself, the plague broke out in AD 166 shortly after the victorious legions held their triumphal procession. Paulus Orosius writes in the 4th century that many localities there have been completely depopulated. The historian Cassius Dio reports of 2,000 deaths daily in Rome, every fourth sick person died. From there it spread rapidly to the Danube and the Rhine .

24-year mass extinction

The result was a mass extinction that was to last almost 24 years with only short interruptions and led to extensive depopulation in the Roman Empire. A tombstone from Bad Endorf in Upper Bavaria, dated to the year 182 AD, was set for an entire family who died of the epidemic and seems to further confirm this. The high mortality rate is also documented by tax lists of the province of Egypt. The astrologers of that time suspected the cause of the catastrophe in a previous conjunction of the planets Mars and Saturn . The disease raged particularly devastatingly in the army's winter quarters. After 170 the epidemic gradually subsided, but flared up again violently around 177. The disease remained regionally endemic and repeatedly led to smaller outbreaks.

At 180 she possibly also grabbed Marcus Aurelius at his whereabouts Vindobona . His friends and confidants, who were summoned to his deathbed, then hurried to leave the room, allegedly for fear of becoming infected. His son and successor Commodus was also sent out again after a brief conversation. The epidemic peaked in 189 and then subsided relatively quickly.

Contemporary medical considerations

The doctor Galenus believed that the cause of the epidemic was pollution of the air, whereupon Emperor Commodus went into the laurel groves of Laurentium . According to Cassius Dio, several people were executed in Rome for allegedly infecting countless people with poisoned needles. Galenus reports of this plague in numerous passages of his writings. In contrast to others, however, he calls them longa, diuturna or magna . In the 9th book of his work "About the correct mixtures and properties of simple medicines" he relates them to the " Attic plague " of Thucydides :

“… Ἐν δε τῷ μεγάλῳ τούτῳ λοιμῷ παραπλησίῳ τὴν ιδέαν ὄντι τῷ κατὰ Θουκυδίδην γενομένῳ…”

"... with this great plague, which was very similar in appearance to the one that, according to Thucydides, broke out ..."

- Galenos : Περὶ κράσεως καὶ δυνάμεως τῶν ἁπλῶν φαρμάκων βιβλίον Ι ( De simplicium medicamentorum temperamentis ac facultatibus liber IX)

Littre and Hecker also assume that the Attic plague was probably the same disease as the Antonine plague.

Galenos also believed that smallpox comes from an innate “peeling substance” that can only be removed from the body when the disease breaks out. In his opinion, only those in whom the pustular outbreak occurs in large numbers could be cured, while those in whom it soon regresses had to die. This led to incorrect treatment methods such as B. to cause the peeling by irritation of the skin or sharp cataplasms . Incidentally, the term “plague” or “Loimos” only had a quantitative meaning for Galenos and applied to all symptoms of illness from which many people died in a short time. Galenos deduces the outbreak of the disease from a defective quality of the body fluids and describes this in the 4th chapter of his book "De atra bile" :

“Black rashes appear all over the body with all the blisters, mostly blackish in texture. This was obviously a remnant of the fevered blood which nature drove to the skin like a kind of ash. In people in whom the rashes became black, the top part of what is called a scab fell off, and afterwards the rest was already close to recovery and healed after a few days. "

Later waves

Another outbreak of the epidemic is reported around 190, during the reign of Commodus. It is not certain whether this was a return of the Antonine Plague.

In the middle of the 3rd century there was another major pandemic, the Cyprian plague . Here, too, it is controversial whether it is a case of a new return of the same disease or a completely new pathogen. Around the year 292 a series of never-ending smallpox epidemics broke out again. Eusebius of Caesarea (260–340) mentions a plague in his church history that broke out under Diocletian in 302 and caused thousands of people to go blind.

“Even though the winter downpours had brought about the proper yield from the fields, an unexpected famine and epidemic arose, together with the misfortune of another disease. It was a festering rash that was nicknamed ' anthrax ' because of its burning character and put the afflicted in great danger because it did not spread over the entire surface of the body, but also often seized the eyes and so countless men, women and children deprived of sight. "

Diocletian, who abdicated in 305 and retired to his retirement home in Salona , also seems to have fallen victim to her in 313. Bishop Cedrenus of Caesarea describes the course of the emperor's illness as follows:

“He was gripped with intense pain in all parts of his body; great heat consumed his insides, and his flesh melted like wax. In the course of the illness he slowly became completely blind; the tongue and the inside of the throat went into putrefaction, so that the still living body gave off the smell of a corpse. "

However, because of the previous persecution of Christians, the bishop was not able to speak well of Diocletian, and the death of co-emperor Galerius was also depicted in darkest colors by Christians.

consequences

Consequences for warfare in the east and on the Danube border

The outbreak of the “plague” 165 immediately meant that the victory against the Parthians could not be converted into a lasting pacification of the eastern borders. Some historians see it as the real reason for the Roman withdrawal from Mesopotamia, although the difficult supply situation in the plundered Seleukia and the long supply routes may also have played a role.

A coin from AD 166 with the portrait of Minerva Medica seems to indicate that the plague raged particularly among the soldiers . The historian Ammianus writes: "... from the border of Persia to the Rhine and Gaul everything was filled with corpses."

In the 160s, the Antonine plague made the defense of the Germanic tribes of the Marcomanni and Quadi on the Danube border very difficult from the Roman point of view . During the Marcomannic Wars it was the cause of the - at times - dramatic deterioration of the military situation on the Roman side. When the Teutons crossed the Danube and invaded the empire, the legions, weakened and decimated by the epidemic, could not withstand them. Mark Aurel was finally forced to personally lead the legions on the Danube from 167 onwards. In the winter of 168/169 the troops lost due to the epidemic (in some units a third of the men were out) that an unfreedom ( volones ) was raised to replace them and an offensive had to be postponed. However, the "plague" also crossed the imperial borders to the north and probably claimed numerous victims among the local tribes. Here, however, the losses and their strategic consequences are not nearly as well documented as they are on the Roman side.

Long term consequences

There is increasing disagreement among modern historians as to whether and to what extent the Antonine Plague can actually be seen as an essential factor for the political destabilization and the gradual loss of imperial unity that ultimately led to the imperial crisis of the third century . The immediate consequences of the epidemic for the economic and social situation of the Roman Empire certainly weighed heavily. At times the public order completely collapsed. Mass exodus is reported in Egypt. Overall, however, the reign of Marcus Aurelius was also characterized by several bad harvests, tax increases and the constant war situation, so that the importance of the epidemic is relativized for a long time.

It is estimated that around seven to ten million people died in the pandemic during the entire period; this was more than five percent of the population. In some urban centers, probably one in ten died.

Ancient sources

The Antonine Plague is one of the best-documented epidemics of ancient times . However, not all sources are of the same quality. The Historia Augusta and Ammianus Marcellinus report on the emergence of the epidemic and its rage within the Roman troops. Like Galenus, Aelius Aristides also describes the appearance of the disease. By Herodian , Orosius and Cassius Dio, the return of the epidemic in the late 180s years has survived. At least the reliability of the information provided by Orosius and Ammianus Marcellinus, who wrote from a long period of time, as well as the Historia Augusta , which is generally considered controversial, is doubtful.

Bibliography

  • Galen : Methodus medendi vel de morbis curandis libri XIV . Translation into Latin by Thomas Linacre . Paris 1519.
  • Cassius Dio : Roman History . Translated by O. Veh. 5 volumes, Munich / Zurich 1985–1987.
  • Ernst Hohl (transl.): Historia Augusta. Roman rulers. Volume 1, Artemis, Zurich / Munich 1976, ISBN 3-7608-3568-6 .

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfgang Wegner: Ammianus Marcellinus. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 51.
  2. ↑ Amm. Marc. XXIII, 6, 24.
  3. ↑ CIL III 5567
  4. ^ Manfred G. Schmidt: Non extincta Lues. To CIL III 5567 . Online (PDF, 2 MB)
  5. ^ C. Pliny: Lib II, Epist. XVII
  6. ↑ Galeni opera omnia, ed. Kühn, Vol. XII, p. 191
  7. ↑ Eusebi histor.ecclesiast. ed.Stroth. Hal. 1779. L.IX.c. 6 and 8.
  8. ^ BM Lersch: History of the people's epidemics. Berlin 1896, p. 27.
  9. ^ Compendium historiar. Paris 1747. TIp267.
  10. ↑ SHA Aur . 21, 6 (English translation)
  11. ↑ Greenberg J .: Plagued by doubt: reconsidering the impact of a mortality crisis in the 2nd century AD In: Journal of Roman Archeology (2003) 16.
  12. ^ Littman RJ, Littman ML: Galen and the Antonine Plague. In: American Journal of Philology 94, 1973, pp. 243-255.