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<p>[QUOTE="Magnus Maximus, post: 3560396, member: 73473"]Rome faced many challenges in the third century: climate change, hostile tribes/kingdoms to the north and east, and political atrophy in its foundational institutions. Any one of these problems would be a challenge to deal with on their own but throw all of them together and add one of the worst pandemics in human history to the mix, and you get a recipe for 50 years of military and civil anarchy.</p><p><br /></p><p>The pandemic, known as the Plague of Cyprian, was first reported in Egypt in 249 and was likely spread throughout the empire by troops stationed in Alexandria. From Alexandria the disease spread throughout the Roman world causing misery and death. It was reported that at the height of the pandemic over 5,000 people were dying a day in the city of Rome. Alexandria, the city where the first cases occurred, lost 62% of it's population. It is possible that the Roman legions lost up to a quarter of their number, and had trouble filling vacancies due to the general population decline from the pandemic. Faced with a significant loss of its tax base the central government increasingly debased it's currency to cover the increasingly high costs of the military. This theory can be supported with evidence that suggests that the rapid debasement of the silver coinage occurred in the year 250/1, exactly the same time the plague was hitting the Roman empire.</p><p><br /></p><p>Actually estimates vary about how many people died from the plague in the empire due to the fact that scientists still don't know what the causative agent was. Sadly, unlike the century earlier Antonine plague, the Cyprian plague (and third century) does not have a very detailed description of events. What we do know of the outbreak comes from the writings of or about Cyprian of Carthage, whom the outbreak is named after. Cyprian and his biographer tend to focus more on the religious aspects of the pestilence than epidemiological ones, though their writings are still a gold mine for trying to piece together what was going on. Cyprian's biography vividly describes the hardship faced by the Romans at the time of the outbreak as "<i> a dreadful plague, and excessive destruction of a hateful disease that 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 carcases of many, and, by the contemplation of a lot which in their turn would be theirs, demanded the pity of the passers-by for themselves."</i></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>In addition Cyprian himself describes the symptoms faced by a person infected by the plague as "<i>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 <b>eyes are on fire with the injected blood</b>; 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 <b>gait is enfeebled</b>, or the <b>hearing is obstructed, or the sight darkened</b>."</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p>Some historians suggest the agent of the plague was the Smallpox virus or Measles virus, though this is not likely as the symptoms do not match. Specifically the symptoms of hemorrhaging from the eyes, severe neurological damage and visual impairment are not found in most cases of Measles and Smallpox . Also, if the disease was indeed Smallpox it seems odd that Cyprian would leave out the tell tale rash and skin pustules associated with that disease. Measles can also be ruled out as it simply hadn't evolved from the Rinderpest virus yet; that would happen in the middle ages.</p><p><br /></p><p>So we are left with a disease that spreads rapidly by direct contact with infected individuals, and it's symptoms include hemorrhagic bleeding, neurological damage, and vision loss. The current leading hypothesis is that the Plague of Cyprian was caused by an viral hemorrhagic fever, similar to today's Marburg and Ebola viruses.</p><p>Ebola and Marburg belong to the family of <i>Filoviridae</i>, a group of related viruses found in Africa, the Philippines, and Europe. Many members of this family cause life threatening illness(up to 70% mortality in some cases) that are characterized by hemorrhaging, high fever, vomiting, neural atrophy, and visual impairment. Unfortunately the viruses are made of RNA which is less stable than DNA and rapidly degrades, which is why scientists are not likely going to find any <i>Filoviridae</i> genetic material in graves associated with the Cyprian plague.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>I had heard of the Cyprian plague before but never put much thought into it until one day I came across a thread on CT that talked about the debasement of Roman silver coinage. One user on the thread brought up a good point that Roman empire seemed to be at least somewhat stable until the reigns of Trajan Decius (249) and Trebonianus Gallus (251). I work in an hospital lab (Micro dept), and am a big fan of history so it was an fun adventure to learn about what possibly caused this epidemic and what it's effects on the Roman empire were. So to "celebrate" the Cyprian Plague here is an tetradrachm of Trebonianus Gallus struck during the early stages of the outbreak.</p><p>Feel free to post your coins![ATTACH=full]946633[/ATTACH]</p><p>25MM .</p><p>10.70GM</p><p>251-253 CE</p><p>Antioch Mint</p><p>[ATTACH=full]946641[/ATTACH]</p><p>A statue of the man on the money.</p><p><br /></p><p>Some of the common Filoviruses</p><p>[ATTACH=full]946639[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Fun reading on the subject</p><p><a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf05.iv.v.vii.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf05.iv.v.vii.html" rel="nofollow">anf05.iv.v.vii.html</a></p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf05.iv.iii.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf05.iv.iii.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf05.iv.iii.html</a></p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.who.int/features/2014/post-ebola-syndrome/en/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.who.int/features/2014/post-ebola-syndrome/en/" rel="nofollow">https://www.who.int/features/2014/post-ebola-syndrome/en/</a></p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2012.00034/full" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2012.00034/full" rel="nofollow">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2012.00034/full</a></p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.academia.edu/3784962/A_theory_on_how_the_denarius_disappeared_and_the_debasement_of_the_antoninianus" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.academia.edu/3784962/A_theory_on_how_the_denarius_disappeared_and_the_debasement_of_the_antoninianus" rel="nofollow">https://www.academia.edu/3784962/A_...peared_and_the_debasement_of_the_antoninianus</a>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="Magnus Maximus, post: 3560396, member: 73473"]Rome faced many challenges in the third century: climate change, hostile tribes/kingdoms to the north and east, and political atrophy in its foundational institutions. Any one of these problems would be a challenge to deal with on their own but throw all of them together and add one of the worst pandemics in human history to the mix, and you get a recipe for 50 years of military and civil anarchy. The pandemic, known as the Plague of Cyprian, was first reported in Egypt in 249 and was likely spread throughout the empire by troops stationed in Alexandria. From Alexandria the disease spread throughout the Roman world causing misery and death. It was reported that at the height of the pandemic over 5,000 people were dying a day in the city of Rome. Alexandria, the city where the first cases occurred, lost 62% of it's population. It is possible that the Roman legions lost up to a quarter of their number, and had trouble filling vacancies due to the general population decline from the pandemic. Faced with a significant loss of its tax base the central government increasingly debased it's currency to cover the increasingly high costs of the military. This theory can be supported with evidence that suggests that the rapid debasement of the silver coinage occurred in the year 250/1, exactly the same time the plague was hitting the Roman empire. Actually estimates vary about how many people died from the plague in the empire due to the fact that scientists still don't know what the causative agent was. Sadly, unlike the century earlier Antonine plague, the Cyprian plague (and third century) does not have a very detailed description of events. What we do know of the outbreak comes from the writings of or about Cyprian of Carthage, whom the outbreak is named after. Cyprian and his biographer tend to focus more on the religious aspects of the pestilence than epidemiological ones, though their writings are still a gold mine for trying to piece together what was going on. Cyprian's biography vividly describes the hardship faced by the Romans at the time of the outbreak as "[I] a dreadful plague, and excessive destruction of a hateful disease that 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 carcases of many, and, by the contemplation of a lot which in their turn would be theirs, demanded the pity of the passers-by for themselves."[/I] In addition Cyprian himself describes the symptoms faced by a person infected by the plague as "[I]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 [B]eyes are on fire with the injected blood[/B]; 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 [B]gait is enfeebled[/B], or the [B]hearing is obstructed, or the sight darkened[/B]." [/I] Some historians suggest the agent of the plague was the Smallpox virus or Measles virus, though this is not likely as the symptoms do not match. Specifically the symptoms of hemorrhaging from the eyes, severe neurological damage and visual impairment are not found in most cases of Measles and Smallpox . Also, if the disease was indeed Smallpox it seems odd that Cyprian would leave out the tell tale rash and skin pustules associated with that disease. Measles can also be ruled out as it simply hadn't evolved from the Rinderpest virus yet; that would happen in the middle ages. So we are left with a disease that spreads rapidly by direct contact with infected individuals, and it's symptoms include hemorrhagic bleeding, neurological damage, and vision loss. The current leading hypothesis is that the Plague of Cyprian was caused by an viral hemorrhagic fever, similar to today's Marburg and Ebola viruses. Ebola and Marburg belong to the family of [I]Filoviridae[/I], a group of related viruses found in Africa, the Philippines, and Europe. Many members of this family cause life threatening illness(up to 70% mortality in some cases) that are characterized by hemorrhaging, high fever, vomiting, neural atrophy, and visual impairment. Unfortunately the viruses are made of RNA which is less stable than DNA and rapidly degrades, which is why scientists are not likely going to find any [I]Filoviridae[/I] genetic material in graves associated with the Cyprian plague. I had heard of the Cyprian plague before but never put much thought into it until one day I came across a thread on CT that talked about the debasement of Roman silver coinage. One user on the thread brought up a good point that Roman empire seemed to be at least somewhat stable until the reigns of Trajan Decius (249) and Trebonianus Gallus (251). I work in an hospital lab (Micro dept), and am a big fan of history so it was an fun adventure to learn about what possibly caused this epidemic and what it's effects on the Roman empire were. So to "celebrate" the Cyprian Plague here is an tetradrachm of Trebonianus Gallus struck during the early stages of the outbreak. Feel free to post your coins![ATTACH=full]946633[/ATTACH] 25MM . 10.70GM 251-253 CE Antioch Mint [ATTACH=full]946641[/ATTACH] A statue of the man on the money. Some of the common Filoviruses [ATTACH=full]946639[/ATTACH] Fun reading on the subject [URL='http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf05.iv.v.vii.html']anf05.iv.v.vii.html[/URL] [url]http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf05.iv.iii.html[/url] [url]https://www.who.int/features/2014/post-ebola-syndrome/en/[/url] [url]https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2012.00034/full[/url] [URL='https://www.academia.edu/3784962/A_theory_on_how_the_denarius_disappeared_and_the_debasement_of_the_antoninianus']https://www.academia.edu/3784962/A_...peared_and_the_debasement_of_the_antoninianus[/URL][/QUOTE]
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