Cyprian plague

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The Cyprian plague was a pandemic that occurred in the Roman Empire between 250 and 271 , the causative agent of which is not yet known. It was described by the church writer Cyprian in 252 and later named after him.

Outbreak and course

The disease appears to have broken out in Ethiopia in 250 . Up to 5,000 people died in weddings in Rome alone every day. According to Aurelius Victor , the Roman Emperor Hostilian died of the disease in 251, Emperor Claudius Gothicus in 270.

In his treatise "De mortalitate", c.14, Cyprian described the symptoms: "The intestines, loosened in constant discharge, empty all body forces; a fire whose origin lies in the marrow ferment in the wounds deep in the throat; the innards are shaken from constant vomiting; the eyes burn from the blood that has been shot; sometimes the poisoning takes arms and legs through pathological putrefaction. "

The disease was described by Georgios Kedrenos (11th / 12th century) as highly contagious, it was propagated through clothing and even eye contact. According to Kedrenos, the wave of illness began each time in autumn and then lasted until the beginning of the dog days .

The pathogen has not yet been identified. The disease may be equated with smallpox . The flu is also discussed as a possible disease, as well as an Ebola- like hemorrhagic fever caused by an unknown filovirus . For this, unusual symptoms described in the sources of the time such as the death and decay of limbs or blindness, which are not known for smallpox or the flu, are used, as well as the lack of mention of skin rashes, which in turn would be typical of smallpox.

The extent of the deaths was also made clear by excavation findings from Egypt published in 2014. The excavation in Thebes , carried out under the direction of Francesco Tiradritti , shows that many epidemic victims were burned and that the remains were burnt without any ritual in an old tomb complex from around 600 BC that was reopened for this purpose. Were buried. To burn the numerous victims, stoves were built, which were hastily built from the stones of the tomb complex. There are also clear signs of disinfection measures with slaked lime.

Social and political consequences

The consequences of the epidemic may have been far-reaching. Kyle Harper sees a close connection between the disease and the 3rd century imperial crisis . The epidemic had deeply shaken and destabilized the demographic and economic basis of the empire, and religious thinking had changed permanently in the face of the long-term disease. First, Emperor Decius blamed the Christians for the epidemic and prosecuted them accordingly (like Emperor Valerian since 257), but then the duration and severity of the epidemic profoundly disrupted trust in the old gods and led to the strong rise of Christianity - self-sacrificing Seeing nursing and mutual help as a religious duty - contributed. The effects were more serious than those of the Antonine plague , which the empire was able to survive relatively intact.

More barbaric troops had to be recruited at the imperial borders. Since around 256 there has been an unprecedented economic and financial crisis in connection with falling agricultural yields and the rising costs of army financing. The fineness of the silver denarius sank to 10, under Gallienus even to a maximum of 5 percent. Nevertheless, there were increased incursions by the Persians and Teutons, which led to considerable territorial losses.

literature

  • Kyle Harper: Pandemics and passages to late antiquity: Rethinking the plague of c. 249-70 described by Cyprian. In: Journal of Roman Archeology 28, 2015, pp. 223-260.
  • Kyle Harper: Fatum : The Climate and Fall of the Roman Empire . 1st edition. Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2020, ISBN 978-3-406-74933-9

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wolfgang Wegner: Cyprian of Carthage. In: Werner E. Gerabek (Hrsg.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin and New York 2005. ISBN 3-11-015714-4 . P. 282
  2. ^ Heinrich Haeser : Historical-pathological investigations. Vol. 1, 1839, p. 83 ( Google Books ).
  3. ↑ Angelika Franz: Makaberer fuel , Der Spiegel online from June 22, 2014
  4. ↑ Kyle Harper: Fatum The Climate and Fall of the Roman Empire . 1st edition. CH Beck, Munich 2020, ISBN 978-3-406-74933-9 , p. 212 ff .
  5. ^ Owen Jarus: Remains of 'End of the World' Epidemic Found in Ancient Egypt in: livescience.com, June 16, 2014.
  6. ↑ Angelika Franz: Makaberer fuel on spiegel.de, June 22, 2014.
  7. ↑ Kyle Harper: Fatum The Climate and Fall of the Roman Empire . 1st edition. Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2020, ISBN 978-3-406-74933-9 , p. 228 ff .
  8. ↑ Kyle Harper: Fatum. The climate and the fall of the Roman Empire . 1st edition. Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2020, ISBN 978-3-406-74933-9 , p. 216 f .
  9. ^ Ernst Kornemann : Roman history. Vol. II, edited by Hermann Bengston, 7th edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 1977, p. 332 f.