Old and Ancient Natural Disasters – Antonina Plague: Roman Empire, 165 Bc – 180 Ad

Antonina Plague (also known as the Plague of Galen, after the name of the person who described it, a specialist in plague pandemics) was a pandemic of chicken pox or measles, brought to the Roman Empire by soldiers that returned from the Middle East. The name comes from one of the possible victims, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Roman Emperor, who died in 180 AD. In addition, historians believe that Lucius Verus, was killed in 169 AD, by the same epidemic.

Although not itself a natural disaster, plague occurred naturally, not caused, is estimated to have killed millions of people, a quarter of all people infected, around 5 million.

According to the historian Dio Cassius, the disease has reignited 70 years later and it killed 5000 people in a single day. Antonina plague decimated the Romanian army and had drastic social and political effects, felt especially in literature and art.

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