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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Orielensis, post: 4266457, member: 96898&quot;]There was indeed an epidemic in 191–193 AD, which is commonly known as &quot;the plague of Commodus&quot; and had a disastrous impact on the Roman city populace. Commodus did little to nothing to help the situation, and he might even have caused or worsened the crisis with his reckless experiments with Rome&#039;s grain supply and storage. Morris Silver at least argues that the extent and spread of this epidemic were caused by Commodus&#039; economic measures, and concludes that &quot;what superficially appears to be an exogenous shock to a society&#039;s economy, like the outbreak of bubonic plague, is actually a predictable, albeit probabilistic, result of that society&#039;s misguided economic policy&quot; (M. Silver: &quot;The Plague under Commodus as an Unintended Consequence of Roman Grain Market Regulation&quot;, in: The Classical World 105.2, 2012, pp. 199–225, p. 216).</p><p><br /></p><p>Well, I won&#039;t start comparing Commodus to some of our own political leaders. That would violate forum rules, so I&#039;ll post two sestertii instead. But you can think your part.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1086719[/ATTACH]</p><p><font size="3">Commodus, Roman Empire, sestertius, 177 AD, Rome mint. Obv: IMP L AVREL COMMODVS AVG [GERM] SARM; laureate and draped bust of Commodus r. Rev: T[R P] II COS [P]P; pile of Germanic arms; in fields, S-C; in exergue, DE GERMANIS. 31mm, 21.84g. Ref: RIC III Marcus Aurelius 1570. Ex CNG, e-auction 142, lot 134; ex CNG, e-auction 447, lot 471.</font></p><p><font size="3"><br /></font></p><p><font size="3">[ATTACH=full]1086720[/ATTACH] </font></p><p><font size="3">Commodus, Roman Empire, sestertius, 183 AD, Rome mint. Obv: M COMMODVS ANTONINVS AVG PIVS; laureate head of Commodus r. Rev: [TR] P VIII [IMP VI] COS IIII P P; Roma, helmeted, draped, seated l. on shield, holding Victory in extended r. hand and vertical spear in l. hand; in fields, S-C. 30mm, 25.14g. Ref: RIC III Commodus 369. Ex André Cichos.[/TR]</font>[TR][/tr][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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