File:Aurelius180AD.png · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Key facts
- Disease
- Probably smallpox
- First reported
- Seleucia
- Date
- 165–180
- Deaths
- 5–10 million (estimated)
- Fatality rate
- 25 percent
via Wikipedia infobox
~14 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The Roman Empire in 180 AD.
The Antonine Plague of AD 165 to 180 (named for the emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus of the Antonine dynasty), also known as the Plague of Galen (after Galen, the Greek physician who described it), was a prolonged and destructive epidemic, which affected the Roman Empire. It was possibly contracted and spread by soldiers who were returning from campaign in the Near East.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Antonine Plague” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.