Thursday, April 16, 2015

Aurelian plagues (251-266 AD)

This is a second outbreak of the same or a similar disease that cause Antonine Plague.

The Aurelian plague or the plague of Cyprian, which raged during the reigns of Claudius Gothicus and Gallienus, began to abate during the reign of Aurelian.

Aurelian, the Roman emperor from 270 to 275, was one of the most successful of 3rd century rulers.

It also known as Plague of Cyprian, named after the Bishop of Carthage, who described the illness starting with violent vomiting and diarrhea.

Although total numbers of fatalities are not known, it was aid that 5000 people a day to be dying in Rome. Half of the population of Alexandria perished also seems more likely to have been smallpox than plague.

Biographer Pontius wrote about its impact on Carthage: a hateful disease invaded every house in succession of the trembling populace, carrying off day by day with abrupt attack numberless people …All were shuddering, felling, shunning the contagion.
Aurelian plagues (251-266 AD)