Plague of Cyprian
Sources: Information on the Plague of Cyprian comes mainly from Wikipedia (Plague of Cyprian) and from articles: The Plague of Cyprian: A revised view of the origin and spread of a 3rd-c. CE pandemic and Solving the Mystery of an Ancient Roman Plague.
The Plague of Cyprian was a pandemic that afflicted the Roman Empire between ca 249 and 262 AD. Its modern name commemorates St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, who witnessed and described the plague. Contemporary sources indicate that the plague originated in Ethiopia. The causative agent of the disease is unknown, but suspects have included smallpox, pandemic influenza, and viral hemorrhagic fever (filoviruses) like the Ebola virus. The plague is thought to have caused widespread manpower shortages for food production and the Roman army, severely weakening the empire during the Crisis of the Third Century.
Pontius of Carthage wrote about the plague in his city:
Afterwards there broke out a dreadful plague, and excessive destruction of a hateful disease invaded every house in succession of the trembling populace, carrying off day by day with abrupt attack numberless people, every one from his own house. All were shuddering, fleeing, shunning the contagion, impiously exposing their own friends, as if with the exclusion of the person who was sure to die of the plague, one could exclude death itself also. There lay about the meanwhile, over the whole city, no longer bodies, but the carcasses of many (…) No one trembled at the remembrance of a similar event.
Pontius of Carthage
Afterwards there broke out a dreadful plague, and excessive destruction of a hateful disease invaded in succession every house of the trembling populace, carrying off day by day with abrupt attack numberless people; each of them from his own house. All were shuddering, fleeing, shunning the contagion, impiously exposing to danger their own friends, as if the exclusion of the person who was sure to die of the plague could stave off death itself also. There lay about the meanwhile, in the whole city, no longer bodies, but the carcasses of many (…) No one trembled at the remembrance of a similar event.
Pontius of Carthage
The death toll was horrendous. Witness after witness testified dramatically, if imprecisely, that depopulation was the inevitable result of the pestilence. At the height of the epidemic outbreak, 5,000 people died daily in Rome alone. We have an intriguingly accurate report from Pope Dionysius of Alexandria. The reckoning implies that the population of the city had dropped from something like 500,000 to 190,000 (by 62%). Not all of these deaths were the result of the plague. Pope Dionysius writes that there were also wars and a terrible famine at this time.(ref.) But the worst was the plague, „A calamity more dreadful than any dread, and more afflicting than any affliction.”
Zosimus reports that more than half of the Roman troops died out from the disease:
While Sapor conquered every part of the East, a plague struck Valerian’s troops, carrying off the majority. (…) A plague afflicted cities and villages and destroyed whatever was left of mankind: no plague in previous times wrought such destruction of human life.
Zosimus
New History, I.20 and I.21, transl. Ridley 2017
While Sapor was conquering every part of the East, a plague struck Valerian’s troops, taking the majority of them. (…) A plague afflicted cities and villages and destroyed whatever was left of mankind; no plague in previous times wrought such destruction of human life.
Zosimus
New History, I.20 and I.21, transl. Ridley 2017
Cyprian vividly described the symptoms of the plague in his essay.
This trial, that now the bowels, relaxed into a constant flux, discharge the bodily strength; that a fire originated in the marrow ferments into wounds of the fauces; that the intestines are shaken with a continual vomiting; that the eyes are on fire with the injected blood; that in some cases the feet or some parts of the limbs are taken off by the contagion of diseased putrefaction; that from the weakness arising by the maiming and loss of the body, either the gait is enfeebled, or the hearing is obstructed, or the sight darkened; – is profitable as a proof of faith.
St. Cyprian
This torment, that now the bowels, relaxed into a constant efflux, discharge the bodily strength; that a fire originated in the marrow ferments into wounds of the throat; that the intestines are shaken with a continual vomiting; that the eyes are on fire with the injected blood; that in some cases the feet or some parts of the limbs are being taken off by the contagion of diseased putrefaction; that from the weakness arising by the maiming and loss of the body, either the gait is enfeebled, or the hearing is obstructed, or the sight darkened; – is salutary as a proof of faith.
St. Cyprian
Cyprian’s account is crucial to our understanding of the disease. Its symptoms included diarrhea, fatigue, inflammation of the throat and eyes, vomiting, and severe infection of the limbs; then came weakness, loss of hearing, and blindness. The disease was characterized by an acute onset. Scientists do not know which pathogen was responsible for the Plague of Cyprian. Cholera, typhus, and measles are within the realm of possibility, but each poses insuperable problems. The hemorrhagic form of smallpox may also account for some of the features described by Cyprian, but none of the sources describe the rash all over the body that is the distinctive feature of smallpox. Finally, the putrescent limbs and permanent weakness characteristic of the disease don’t match with smallpox. The bubonic and pneumonic plagues also do not fit the pathology. However, in my opinion, the symptoms of the disease described above match very well with other forms of plague: septicemic and pharyngeal. So it turns out that the Plague of Cyprian was nothing else than a plague epidemic! Scientists could not figure this out because the history of this epidemic lacks records of the two most common forms of plague disease, that is bubonic and pneumonic plagues. These forms must have also existed at the time, but their descriptions have not survived to this day. It is possible that they were deliberately erased from the chronicles to hide the mystery behind the great pandemics of plague.
The course of the illness was terrifying. This impression is confirmed by another North African eyewitness, a Christian not far from Cyprian’s circle, who emphasized the unfamiliarity of the disease, writing: „Do we not behold disasters from some previously unknown kind of plague brought on by furious and prolonged diseases?”. The Plague of Cyprian was not just another epidemic. It was something qualitatively new. The pandemic wreaked havoc everywhere, in settlements large and small, deep into the interior of the empire. By beginning in the autumn and abating in the following summer it reversed the usual seasonal distribution of deaths in the Roman Empire. The pestilence was indiscriminate – it killed regardless of age, sex, or station. The disease invaded every house. One chronicler reported that the disease was transmitted through clothing or simply by sight. But Orosius blamed the morose air that spread over the empire.
In Rome, similarly, during the reign of Gallus and Volusianus, who had succeeded the short-lived persecutor Decius, the seventh plague came from the poisoning of the air. This caused a pestilence which, spreading through all the regions of the Roman Empire from east to west, not only killed off almost all mankind and cattle, but also „poisoned the lakes and tainted the pastures”.
Paulus Orosius
Cataclysms
In 261 or 262 AD, the earthquake with the epicenter in Southwest Anatolia struck a large area around the Mediterranean Sea. The shock devastated the Roman city of Ephesus in Anatolia. It also caused considerable damage to the city of Cyrene in Libya, where Roman ruins provide archeological evidence of destruction. The city was razed to the extent that it was rebuilt under the new name of Claudiopolis.(ref.) Rome was also affected.
In the consulship of Gallienus and Fausianus, amid so many calamities of war, there was also a terrible earthquake and a darkness for many days. There was heard, besides, the sound of thunder, not like Jupiter thundering, but as though the earth were roaring. And by the earthquake many structures were swallowed up together with their inhabitants, and many men died of fright. This disaster, indeed, was worst in he cities of Asia; but Rome, too, was shaken and Libya also was shaken. In many places the earth yawned open, and salt water appeared in the fissures. Many cities were even overwhelmed by the sea. Therefore the favour of the gods was sought by consulting the Sibylline Books, and, according to their command, sacrifices were made to Jupiter Salutaris. For so great a pestilence, too, had arisen in both Rome and the cities of Achaea that in one single day five thousand men died of the same disease.
Trebellius Pollio
In the consulship of Gallienus and Fausianus, amid so many calamities of war, there was also a terrible earthquake and a darkness for many days. There was heard, besides, the sound of thunder, not like Jupiter thundering, but as though the earth were roaring. And by the earthquake, many structures were swallowed up together with their inhabitants, and many men died of fright. This disaster, indeed, was worst in he cities of Asia; but Rome, too, was shaken and Libya also was shaken. In many places the earth yawned open, and salt water appeared in the fissures. Many cities has been even overflowed by the sea. Therefore the favour of the gods was sought by consulting the Sibylline Books, and, according to their command, sacrifices were made to Jupiter Salutaris. For so great a pestilence, too, had arisen in both Rome and the cities of Achaea that in one single day five thousand men died of the same disease.
Trebellius Pollio
We see that it was not just an usual earthquake. The report note that many cities were flooded by the sea, probably by a tsunami. There was also a mysterious darkness for many days. And what’s most interesting, once again we encounter the same pattern where right after the massive earthquake, a pestilence had arisen!
From Dionysius’s letter, we also learn that there were significant weather anomalies at that time.
But the river which washes the city, has sometimes appeared more dry than the parched desert. (…) Sometimes, also, it has so overflowed, that it has inundated all the country round; the roads and the fields seeming to threaten that flood of waters which happened in the days of Noah.
Pope Dionysius of Alexandria
quoted in Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History, VII.21
But the river which washes the city, has sometimes appeared more dry than the parched desert. (…) Sometimes, also, it has so overflowed, that it has inundated all the country round; the roads and the fields seeming to resemble the flood, which happened in the days of Noah.
Pope Dionysius of Alexandria
quoted in Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History, VII.21
Dating of the plague
Kyle Harper’s book „The Fate of Rome” published in 2017 constitutes the only comprehensive study to date on this important plague outbreak. Harper’s argument for the origin and first appearance of this disease hinges mainly on two letters by Pope Dionysius cited in Eusebius’s „Ecclesiastical History” – the letter to Bishop Hierax and the letter to the brothers in Egypt.(ref.) Harper considers the two letters to be the earliest evidence for the Plague of Cyprian. Based on these two letters, Harper claims that the pandemic broke out in 249 AD in Egypt and quickly spread across the empire, reaching Rome by 251 AD.
The dating of Dionysius’s letters to Hierax and to the brothers in Egypt is, however, far less certain than Harper presents it. In dating these two letters, Harper follows Strobel, glossing over an entire scholarly discussion (see the 6th column from the right in the table). Multiple scholars before and after Strobel are actually in agreement that the two letters must have been written considerably later, and place them almost unanimously around the years 261–263 AD. Such dating completely undermines Harper’s chronology of the epidemic.
The first possible reference to the pestilence in Alexandria appears in Eusebius’s „Ecclesiastical History” in an Easter letter to the brothers Dometius and Didymus (not mentioned by Harper), which in recent publications is dated to the year 259 AD. This leads to the conclusion that there is no good evidence for an initial outbreak of the plague in 249 AD in Alexandria. According to the Eusebius’s book, a major outbreak of the disease seems to have struck the city only almost a decade later. In the two other letters discussed above – addressed to „Hierax, an Egyptian bishop” and to „the brothers in Egypt”, and written with hindsight between 261 and 263 AD – Dionysius then laments over persistent or successive pestilences and a tremendous loss of people in Alexandria.
Paulus Orosius (ca 380 – ca 420 AD) was a Roman priest, historian and theologian. His book, „History Against the Pagans”, focuses on the history of pagan peoples from the earliest times up until the time when Orosius lived. This book was one of the main sources of information regarding antiquity until the Renaissance. Orosius was a highly influential figure in both the dissemination of information and the rationalization of the study of history; his methodology greatly influenced later historians. According to Orosius, the Plague of Cyprian began between 254 and 256 AD.
In the 1007th year after the founding of the City [of Rome, i.e. 254 AD], Gallus Hostilianus seized the throne as the 26th emperor after Augustus, and with difficulty held it for two years with his son, Volusianus. Vengeance for the violation of the Christian name spread out and, where the edicts of Decius for the destruction of churches circulated, to those places a pestilence of incredible diseases extended. Almost no Roman province, no city, no house existed, which was not seized by that general pestilence and laid bare. Gallus and Volusianus, famous for this plague alone, were killed while carrying on a civil war against Aemilianus.
Paulus Orosius
History against the Pagans, 7.21.4–6, transl. Deferrari 1964
In the 1007th year after the founding of the City [of Rome, i.e. 254 AD], Gallus Hostilianus seized the throne as the 26th emperor after Augustus, and with difficulty held it for two years with his son, Volusianus. Vengeance for the violation of the Christian name spread out and, where the edicts of Decius for the destruction of churches circulated, to those places a pestilence of incredible diseases extended. Almost no Roman province, no city, no house existed, which was not seized by that general pestilence and desolated. Gallus and Volusianus, famous for this plague alone, were killed while carrying on a civil war against Aemilianus.
Paulus Orosius
History against the Pagans, 7.21.4–6, transl. Deferrari 1964
According to Orosius, the plague broke out during the two-year reign of Gallus and Volusianus. Several authors add that some regions experienced recurrent outbreaks of the plague. Philostratus of Athens wrote that the epidemic lasted for 15 years.(ref.)
The Plague of Cyprian broke out some 419 years before the powerful earthquakes of the Justinianic Plague period. This is a big discrepancy from the 676-year cycle of resets that we are looking for. However, according to the Aztec myth of the Five Suns, great cataclysms sometimes occurred also in the middle of this period as well. Therefore, we should find the previous great catastrophes that have afflicted mankind to see if they occur cyclically. The Plague of Cyprian was preceded by two great and famous epidemics. One of them was the Antonine Plague (165–180 AD), which took the lives of several million people in the Roman Empire. It was a smallpox epidemic and it was not associated with any natural disasters. The other was the Plague of Athens (ca 430 BC), which, as it turns out, coincided with powerful earthquakes. The Plague of Athens broke out about 683 years before the Plague of Cyprian. So we have here only 1% discrepancy from the 676-year cycle. Therefore, it is worth to take a close look at this epidemic.
Plague of Athens
Sources: I wrote the part on the Plague of Athens based on the book „The History of the Peloponnesian War” written by the ancient Greek historian Thucydides (ca 460 BC – ca 400 BC). All the quotes come from this book. Some other information comes from Wikipedia (Plague of Athens).
The Plague of Athens was an epidemic that ravaged the city-state of Athens in ancient Greece in 430 BC, during the second year of the Peloponnesian War. The plague was an unforeseen event that resulted in one of the largest recorded loss of life in the history of ancient Greece. Much of the eastern Mediterranean was also affected by the epidemic, but information from other regions is scant. The plague returned two more times, in 429 BC and in the winter of 427/426 BC. Some 30 different pathogens have been suggested by scientists as possible cause for the outbreak.
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The pestilence was just one of the catastrophic events of that period. Thucydides writes that during the 27-year Peloponnesian War, the earth was also haunted by terrible droughts and powerful earthquakes.
There were earthquakes of unparalleled extent and violence; eclipses of the sun occurred with a frequency unrecorded in previous history; there were great droughts in sundry places and consequent famines, and that most calamitous and awfully fatal visitation, the plague.
Thucydides
When Thucydides writes about the second wave of the epidemic, he explicitly states that numerous earthquakes occurred at the same time as the plague. There was also a tsunami known as the Malian Gulf tsunami of 426 BC.(ref.)
The plague a second time attacked the Athenians; (…) The second visit lasted no less than a year, the first having lasted two; (…) At the same time took place the numerous earthquakes in Athens, Euboea, and Boeotia, particularly at Orchomenus (…) About the same time that these earthquakes were so common, the sea at Orobiae, in Euboea, retiring from the then line of coast, returned in a huge wave and invaded a great part of the town, and retreated leaving some of it still under water; so that what was once land is now sea; such of the inhabitants perishing as could not run up to the higher ground in time.
Thucydides
From the further words of the chronicler it is clear that the Plague of Athens, contrary to what its name suggests, was not a problem of just one city, but occurred over a wide area.
It was said that it had broken out in many places previously in the neighbourhood of Lemnos and elsewhere; but a pestilence of such extent and mortality was nowhere remembered. Neither were the physicians at first of any service, ignorant as they were of the proper way to treat it, but they died themselves the most thickly, as they visited the sick most often. (…)
The disease is said to have begun south of Egypt in Ethiopia; thence it descended into Egypt and Libya, and after spreading over the greater part of the Persian empire, suddenly fell upon Athens.Thucydides
The History of the Peloponnesian War, transl. Crawley and GBF
It was said that it had broken out in many places previously, in the neighbourhood of Lemnos and elsewhere; but a pestilence of such extent and mortality was nowhere remembered. Neither were the physicians at first not helpful; ignorant of the proper way to treat it, but they themselves died the most often, because they visited the sick most often. (…)
The disease is said to have begun south of Egypt in Ethiopia; thence it descended into Egypt and Libya, and after spreading over the greater part of the Persian empire, suddenly fell upon Athens.Thucydides
The History of the Peloponnesian War, transl. Crawley and GBF
The disease began in Ethiopia, exactly as it did with the Plagues of Justinian and Cyprian. It then passed through Egypt and Libya (this term was then used to describe all the Maghreb region, occupied at the time by the Carataginian Empire). The epidemic also spread to the vast territory of Persia – an empire, which at the time reached as far as the borders of Greece. Thus, the plague must have affected practically the entire Mediterranean region. It wreaked the greatest havoc in Athens, due to the high population density of the city. Unfortunately, there are no surviving accounts of mortality in other places.
Thucydides emphasizes that this disease was worse than any previously known. The infection was easily transmitted to other people through close contact. Thucydides’ narrative pointedly refers to the increased risk among caregivers. Then the chronicler comprehensively describes the symptoms of the plague.
People in good health were all of a sudden attacked by violent heats in the head, and redness and inflammation in the eyes, the inward parts, such as the throat or tongue, becoming bloody and emitting an unnatural and fetid breath. These symptoms were followed by sneezing and hoarseness, after which the pain soon reached the chest, and produced a hard cough. When it fixed in the stomach, it upset it; and discharges of bile of every kind named by physicians ensued, accompanied by very great distress. In most cases also an ineffectual retching followed, producing violent spasms, which in some cases ceased soon after, in others much later. Externally the body was not very hot to the touch, nor pale in its appearance, but reddish, livid, and breaking out into small pustules and ulcers. But internally it burned so that the patient could not bear to have on him clothing or linen even of the very lightest description; or indeed to be otherwise than stark naked. What they would have liked best would have been to throw themselves into cold water; as indeed was done by some of the neglected sick, who plunged into the rain-tanks in their agonies of unquenchable thirst; though it made no difference whether they drank little or much. Besides this, the miserable feeling of not being able to rest or sleep never ceased to torment them. The body meanwhile did not waste away so long as the distemper was at its height, but held out to a marvel against its ravages; so that when they succumbed, as in most cases, on the seventh or eighth day to the internal inflammation, they had still some strength in them. But if they passed this stage, and the disease descended further into the bowels, inducing a violent ulceration there accompanied by severe diarrhoea, this brought on a weakness which was generally fatal. For the disorder first settled in the head, ran its course from thence through the whole of the body, and, even where it did not prove mortal, it still left its mark on the extremities; for it settled in the privy parts, the fingers and the toes, and many escaped with the loss of these, some too with that of their eyes. Others again were seized with an entire loss of memory on their first recovery, and did not know either themselves or their friends. (…) Such then, if we pass over the varieties of particular cases which were many and peculiar, were the general features of the distemper.
Thucydides
People in good health were all of a sudden attacked by violent heats in the head, and redness and inflammation in the eyes. The inward parts, such as the throat or tongue, have become bloody and emitted an unnatural and fetid breath. These symptoms were followed by sneezing and hoarseness, after which the pain soon reached the chest, and produced a hard cough. When it fixed in the stomach, it irritate it; and discharges of bile of every kind named by physicians ensued, accompanied by very great suffering. In most cases also an ineffectual retching followed, producing violent spasms, which in some cases ceased soon after, in others much later. Externally the body was not very hot to the touch, nor pale in its appearance, but reddish, livid, and breaking out into small pustules and ulcers. But internally the body burned so that the patient could not bear to have on him clothing or linen even of the very lightest description; they preferred to be completely naked. They would be most happy to throw themselves into cold water; as indeed was done by some of the neglected sick, who plunged into the rain-tanks in their agonies of unquenchable thirst; though it made no difference whether they drank little or much. Besides this, the miserable feeling of not being able to rest or sleep never ceased to torment them. The body meanwhile did not lose its strength so long as the disease was at its height, but it was marvelously holding out against ravages; so that when the patients succumbed to death caused by the internal inflammation, in most cases on the seventh or eighth day, they had still some strength in them. But if they passed this stage, and the disease descended further into the bowels, inducing a violent ulceration there accompanied by severe diarrhoea, this brought on a weakness which was generally fatal. For the disease first settled in the head, ran its course from thence through the whole of the body, and even if it did not prove mortal, it still left its mark on the extremities; for the disease affected the intimate parts, the fingers and the toes, and many have lost them, some too lost their eyes. Others in turn were seized with an entire loss of memory after their first recovery, and were not recognizing either themselves or their friends. (…) So, if we pass over the varieties of particular cases which were many and peculiar, such were the general features of the disease.
Thucydides
Historians have long tried to identify the disease that was behind the Plague of Athens. Traditionally, the disease was considered to be the plague disease in its many forms, but today scholars propose alternative explanations. These include typhus, smallpox, measles, and toxic shock syndrome. Ebola or related viral hemorrhagic fever has also been suggested. However, the symptoms of none of these diseases match the description provided by Thucydides. On the other hand, the symptoms perfectly match various forms of the plague disease. Only the plague disease causes such a wide range of symptoms. The Plague of Athens was again an epidemic of the plague disease! In the past, such an explanation was known to scientists, but for some vague reason it was abandoned.
The plague resulted in a breakdown of Athenian society. Thucydides’ account clearly describes the complete disappearance of social morals during the time of the plague:
The catastrophe was so overwhelming that men, not knowing what would happen next to them, became indifferent to every rule of religion or law.
Thucydides
The catastrophe was so overwhelming that men, not knowing what would happen to them next, became indifferent to every rule of religion or law.
Thucydides
Thucydides states that people ceased fearing the law because they felt they were already living under a death sentence. It was also noted that people refused to behave honorably, as most did not expect to live long enough to enjoy a good reputation for it. People also began to spend money indiscriminately. Many felt that they would not live long enough to enjoy the fruits of a wise investment, while some of the poor unexpectedly became rich by inheriting the property of their relatives.
Dating of the plague
Thucydides writes that the plague began in the second year of the Peloponnesian War. Historians date the beginning of this war to 431 BC. However, this is not the only dating of the event I have come across. In the book „Histories against the Pagans” (2.14.4),(ref.) Orosius describes the Peloponnesian War at length. Orosius put this war under the year 335th after the founding of Rome. And because Rome was founded in 753 BC, then the 335th year of the city’s existence was 419 BC. Orosius merely briefly mentions the plague in Athens (2.18.7),(ref.) without specifying in which year it began. However, if we accept the dating of the Peloponnesian War to 419 BC, then the plague in Athens should have begun in 418 BC. We know that the plague was in many places before it reached Athens. So in other countries it must have started a year or two before 418 BC.