BOOK REVIEW: When women started asking men how often they think about ancient Rome, a recent TikTok survey produced a surprising result. Some admitted it was several times a day.
It suggested Rome conjured thoughts of gladiators, the Roman Legion and the Imperial Eagle, symbols of masculinity and power. Others pointed to the empire’s architectural and engineering feats.
Rome was also known for its period of peace and prosperity which coincided with a warm climate trend that lasted 800 years from about 300BC to 500AD. It produced record harvests, and developed ideas of civic service, personal ambition and conspicuous consumption, particularly among the elites.
After 450 years, the world’s greatest empire was at its peak, stretching from Britain to Egypt. But then, seemingly out of nowhere, came a devastating pandemic that triggered its decline.
Colin Elliott, an associate professor of history at the University of Indiana, has produced Pox Romana - a forensic study of what is known as the Antonine Plague, based on historical documents using the insights of modern science and medicine.
He concludes that this was the world’s first major pandemic and that the human response followed a pattern that has recurred to the present day. Yet its cause and origins are still unknown. The best guess is that it spread from China, as many contemporary pandemics have, but Africa and India cannot be ruled out.
The pathogen was first recorded by Western accounts in the southeastern parts of the empire, where Roman legionnaires were fighting the Parthians in modern Iraq. Modern researchers liken the pathogen to smallpox, except that it was deadly to adults rather than children.
It was highly infectious and left few survivors among people living in densely populated conditions, such as urban areas and armies.
Pagan Romans blamed it on Apollo, the god of healing and disease, who was presumably displeased when soldiers looted his statue in Seleucia, the former capital of an empire that Rome conquered in 165AD.
Galen, Rome’s most famous physician, described it as a black rash covering the body. He was a maverick among the city’s doctors, who were mainly Greeks and widely despised for their exorbitant charges.
They had no cures for the plague, and Galen wisely fled the city, joining others who could afford country houses. They survived but millions didn’t. Estimates range from 2% to 33%; a conservative view of 10% was equivalent to a loss of 7-8 million.
The population loss had devasting economic effects. Historians don’t have a lot of evidence, but one certainty was the decline in silver mining due to lack of demand for coins.
Typically, such disease outbreaks bring calls for retribution and blame. Non-believers in the Roman gods were an easy target for persecution. Ironically, the Roman religion’s failure to either explain or arrest the pandemic had an unexpected outcome. Elliott writes: “Christianity offered both the hope of bodily healing and compelling frameworks to accommodate suffering and a comparably concrete perspective of the afterlife.”
The doctrine of love and care for others also had appeal. Christians numbered about 30-40,000 during the persecution. This would change dramatically after Constantine began his conversion to Christianity following his victory at the Battle of Milvian Bridge in 312AD.
Despite the depth and breadth of his research, Elliott keeps his text to a modest 240 pages. It is a demanding but rewarding read, particularly for those who think daily about ancient Rome.
Pox Romana: The Plague That Shook the Roman World by Colin Elliott (Princeton University Press, $69.99 hb) is out now.
