There was a time when men died like flies from diseases that can be cured today. This time began to decline even seventy years ago with the emergence of antibiotics, then with antivirals and anticancer drugs. However, not too long ago our grandparents were born and lived in a world where measles had a lethality of 30%, polio could kill 3.000 people in a year in the United States and the son of the American president died of a bladder. badly treated on one foot.
In short, without drugs and vaccines able to deal decisive blows to bacteria and viruses, powerful and humble they were all at the mercy of ancestral and unbeatable forces.
If we go back in time, we find other evidences of this impotence of man in some great pandemics, one of which interests us particularly because it struck the Roman Empire in the heart in one of the heydays. We refer to the plague that exploded in 165 during the reign of Marco Aurelio Antonino and known as "antonina" or "di Galeno".
We talked about it with Roberto Trizio, owner of the Youtube channel "The Bar of Ancient Rome" and expert of the Roman world.
Many know Marco Aurelio. The philosopher emperor had added the name "Antonino" after the adoption by Antonino Pio. Who was he?
He was an emperor who should be remembered more often. Adopted son of Adriano, he was a great statesman, excellent administrator of finances and internal politics in the empire, excellent in relations with peoples beyond borders and capable of creating harmony with the senatorial and military elites. With him Rome experienced a period of prosperity, peace, good administration. Certainly an enlightened emperor, as well as an excellent guardian of two brothers, Marco Aurelio and Lucio Vero, who would reign together after him.
In what conditions did the Roman Empire arrive at this epochal passage? And the surrounding realms?
We are largely under the period of the so-called "adoptive emperors". The emperor formally chose and adopted his successor, selecting him by meritocracy. A period of great stability and a rather homogeneous policy.
The empire arrives at the appointment with this epidemic in excellent condition, actually. The surrounding realms, however, made one think: the Germanic tribes began to press on the borders, above all because they had learned a lot from the Romans, they had civilized "by contact" and began to create coalitions. As well as the kingdom of the Parthians, which continued to be a thorn in the side of the Empire, so much so that it arrived at the particular countryside of Lucio Vero, which would then start the epidemic.
From a microbiological point of view, what do we know about the disease?
We know it caused a persistent cough and bad smell, accompanied by fever and diarrhea with bleeding. The chronicles (mainly of Galen) speak of the appearance after about 9 days of blight, some bright red others darker The mortality was high, about a quarter of the infected did not make it, even if those who survived, fortunately, became immune.
The modern scientific community identifies the disease (actually erroneously called plague) with smallpox, which at the time was devastating, since it found a population without any type of antibody and therefore strongly exposed.
How did it spread in Italy and in the rest of the empire?
The point of contact with the empire was the particular countryside of Lucio Vero, as practically all ancient sources agree. Committed to conquering the city of Seleucia, the emperor and his soldiers contract the disease that spreads with remarkable rapidity. The epidemic haunts the East and reaches Italy through the Roman legionaries who return to their homes.
An important outbreak was that of Aquileia (today in Friuli-Venezia Giulia) which quickly spread evil to Rome and to the whole peninsula. From there it was a moment to arrive in the Gauls and even on the northern Germanic border.
Did this, like the Black Plague and COVID-19, also have Chinese origins?
Yes, the Plague Antonina also probably left China. In fact, we have Chinese sources who tell us about an epidemic that spread a few years before the point of contact with the Romans in Seleucia.
What measures were taken to reduce the infection?
From a technical point of view, the Romans had advanced medicine for their time, but tended to be still very rudimentary. They used a mixture of herbs of which they knew the antiseptic and disinfectant properties, although then most of the result depended on the response of the individual's immune system. And the great luck was that those who fell ill but managed to heal remained immune.
It must be said that a tremendous fear of contagion spread: the most disparate theories multiplied, improvised doctors and wizards to which people referred abounded, and citizens began to collect amulets and objects to try to ward off evil. It should also be considered an important collective hysteria that surely affected the Roman population.
The solution, although painful, was in the progressive increase of survivors equipped with antibodies that automatically limited the infection. Although at the cost of millions of deaths.
What was the impact on the Roman army?
Devastating. Roman soldiers were literally decimated. The situation was serious on the eastern border, from where it all started, but even worse on the northern side, where limes stood out in defense of the Germanic populations. There was a massacre there that undermined the ability to control and endurance in a very significant way.
To understand its gravity, just think that Marcus Aurelius had to rush with reinforcement armies that were made by literally putting the sword in the hands of anyone who was in the least able to hold it. Young people, barely more than boys, mature men, gladiators, slaves. It was a situation bordering on despair.
What consequences did this crisis entail? Which authors have handed it down to us?
The main consequence was demographic, with all possible negative effects. First of all, a contraction in the production capacity of food, which began to be scarce and what remained to cost a lot. Same goes for the production of objects, tools and basic necessities. The population was exhausted.
It was no better for the empire. Having fewer citizens means fewer taxpayers for taxes, and therefore a powerful tax shortfall, in the face of military expenses that instead remained unchanged, indeed, increased due to the need to replace the soldiers.
The empire recovered, of course, with two methods: to import, sometimes by force, new Germanic tribes to replace the dead, and the reuse of slaves in productive and working positions. But the trace of that plague remained forever in society, certainly on a psychological level, but above all on a productive level.
The main author is the doctor Galen, who lived at the same time as the epidemic and observed its symptoms directly, while from the historiographic point of view Dione Cassio talks about it, as well as hints by Marco Aurelio himself, in his "Thoughts".
Image: Michael Marsan
