From 166 A.D. to 180 A.D., The Antonine Plague spread around Europe devastating many countries. This epidemic killed thousands per day and is also known as the modern-day name Smallpox. It is known as one of deadliest plagues around the world.
The Antonine Plague has been around for centuries, though it is known by many different names around the world, like the Plague of Galen or Smallpox. The plague first started around 166 A.D. Roman soldiers coming back from (now in modern day Iraq) Seleucia, in the Middle East, contracted and carried this plague along the Mediterranean coastlines and back home to Rome. It killed about two-thousand people per day in the city of Rome.
The Antonine Plague is also known as the Plague of Galen because he is the only person to document the symptoms and record what happened to the people in the city of Rome. Claudius Galen was a Greek Physician born in
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130 A.D. in what is now modern-day Turkey. He grew up to study medicine and philosophy. Galen came to Rome around 162 A.D. to revive the practice Hippocrates favored. When the plague started to hit Rome, Galen fled the city in 166 A.D. Galen described the plague as “a long, cruel disease that involved fever, diarrhea, and inflammation of the throat, as well as pustules on the skin” as he witnessed the disease first hand, two years later. He returned to Rome in 168 A.D. by invitation from the Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius. The Antonine Plague is named after Marcus’ family name Antoninus. Since this plague killed so many people, Rome lost ten percent of their population to this plague. In some other places, the plague killed twenty to thirty percent of civilians and military. It is believed that Marcus Aurelius died from the devastating plague that hit his empire. Before he died, his last words were, “Weep not for me, think rather of the pestilence and the deaths of so many others.” When he died in 180 A.D., the plague unexpectedly disappeared and the death toll went down every day. Nine years later, the plague sparked up again as it killed more and more people each day than the one before. Total deaths is estimated to be around five million. The Antonine Plague is believed to be one of the many reasons that caused the decline of the Roman Empire. Many modern day scientists believe the Antonine Plague is smallpox. There has been researching done on the deceased bodies in Rome to try to figure out what this epidemic was and what caused it. It has been around for thousands of years, even dating back to 1156 B.C. Symptoms of smallpox include skin rashes, vomiting, blisters that leave scars or scabs on the body, pain throughout the body, fever, and headaches. It is considered deadly and is highly contagious. There is no cure for smallpox, only vaccines to prevent the disease, and that is the reason why it is considered to be so deadly. It has since then disappeared from the world and will most likely never come back, in its original form. Some symptoms of The Antonine Plague include fever, headaches, blisters, and all the other symptoms listed above with the symptoms of smallpox.
(See second paragraph for first hand witnessed symptoms). The two diseases, which are believed to be the same, happened during two completely different times. The Antonine Plague’s individuals had not yet been exposed to many diseases, so they were not immune to and contracted things easier. They could have possibly been the same disease, but The Antonine Plague most likely mutated thousands of years before it struck again. When smallpox broke out in the United States of America in the late 1960’s, it only killed two million people, half of what The Antonine Plague did around 170 A.D. Since the United States has advanced technology after The Antonine Plague hit, they were able to keep the death rate down when fifteen million people were originally diagnosed with this deadly disease. They kept it down with the use of vaccines to help prevent someone from ever getting in their lifetime, but there is and was no real cure for this
disease. Both diseases have the same symptoms, but that does not necessarily mean they are exactly the same. Different kinds of diseases could have the same symptoms, but have a completely different outcome to that individual. The Antonine plague is just another name for the disease of smallpox. They have the same symptoms and traits, even if it has mutated since The Antonine Plague. Scientists are not one hundred percent sure what The Antonine Plague really was, but with the evidence they have collected from their research, the most logical answer would be smallpox.
First of all the setting affects the plot because of how the disease would spread very fast. It can move very fast because before it was eradicated there were so many deaths. The text states, “Prior to vaccination, 400,000 smallpox deaths occurred in a routine year in Europe” (Cooney 92). This shows how just in one year 400,000 people died from smallpox. On page 92 the author writes, “But only one-third of smallpox patients died, so the actual number getting smallpox was 1.2 million” (Cooney). This shows that it was moving so fast in Europe that 1.2 million got infected by smallpox. With all of the things discussed in the paragraph the setting affected the plot because of the smallpox virus
Plagues and Peoples written by William H. McNeill follows the patterns of epidemics and endemics within human history. It is within this history that McNeill finds parallels between diseases and humans in the forms of microparasitism and macroparasitism. Merely from the title, McNeill gives equal importance to viruses and humankind. In several instances, humans behave the same way viruses, bacteria, and parasites do in order to survive and to compete. Surprisingly enough, McNeill’s overarching theme can be summarized using his last sentence, asserting that “Infectious disease which antedated the emergence of humankind will last as long as humanity itself, and will surely remain, as it has been hitherto, one of the fundamental parameters and
After a series of biochemical tests and evaluation to determine several unknown bacteria, the bacterium Yersinia pestis was chosen to report. The discovery of Y. pestis dates back to 1894 by French/Swiss physician and bacteriologist named Alexandre Yersin. The name Yersinia pestis is synonymous with its more common name, the plague. Y. pestis is known to infect small rodents such as mice and rats, but is transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected animal or flea. Although this bacterium is known to still cause illness today, it is infamous for three pandemics that occurred in earlier centuries. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the first recorded pandemic occurred in 541 A.D. and is known as the Justinian Plague. The second pandemic originated in China in 1334 and has received the egregious name the “Black Death.” Finally, the third outbreak took place in the 1860’s and is known as the Modern Plague. It wasn’t until the end of the Modern Plague that scientists discovered the causative agent and mode of transmission of the Yersinia pestis bacterium.
In 1300, multiple out breaks of the Black Plague arised. For example, in the thirteenth century an outbreak in China killed one third of the population. Several dates before this time showed the disease was present years ago in Europe. Dying from the Plague was scary to most people and Jordan Mcmullin, an author stresses, “Whenever the Plague appeared the sadness of death was terrifying” (Mcmullin n.pag.). Death has always been frightening, but when a country plagues with disease, death becomes a terrible fear, the Plague scared the people of 541, and 542, when their outbreak of the Plague spread. Therefore, while other outbreaks of the Black Plague took place, the fourteenth century outbreak in Europe was certainly the worst.
Is it little by surprise that the plague was the most dreaded disease in the Elizabethan era. Death is a terrible thing, especially when a person is getting executed. People died of many diseases in that era. Such as blood poisoning, and the bubonic plague which refers back to black death. It was a very violent disease to get, it was very contagious. The most dreadful punishments in this era were getting hung which lead into executions (Linda Alcin 1) .After you are half dead from getting hung they take you and cut you into squares and hang you up around the city of England .
The Black Death, also known as the Black Plague and Bubonic Plague, was a catastrophic plague that started out in Asia and began to spread into Europe. In the span of three years, the Black Death killed about one third of all the people in Europe. The plague started out in the Gobi Dessert in Mongolia during the 1320’s. From the desert the plague began to spread outwards in all directions. China was among the first to suffer from the plague in the early 1330s before the plague hit Europe.
The plague started from central Asia where it made it’s way through the Silk Road in 1346, reaching a place called Crimea, close to the black sea. It was here, most likely, where the rats then went on board the merchant ships. As the ships sailed throughout the Mediterranean and Europe, so did the plague. During this time an estimate of 30% to 60 % of Europe’s total population were killed.
William H. McNeill makes a monumental contribution to the knowledge of humanity in his book Plagues and Peoples. He looks at the history of the world from an ecological point of view. From this viewpoint the history of human civilization is greatly impacted by changing patterns of epidemic infection. Plagues and Peoples suggests that "the time scale of world history...should [be] viewed [through] the "domestication" of epidemic disease that occurred between 1300 and 1700" (page 232). "Domestication" is perceived "as a fundamental breakthrough, directly resulting from the two great transportation revolutions of that age - one by land, initiated by the Mongols, and one by sea, initiated by Europeans" (page 232). This book illustrates how man's environment and its resident diseases have controlled human migration, as well as societal successes and failures. McNeill discusses the political, demographical, and psychological effects of disease on the human race. He informs his audience that epidemics are still a viable threat to society, and warns of potential future consequences.
The Plague (French, La Peste) is a novel written by Albert Camus that is about an epidemic of bubonic plague. The Plague is set in a small Mediterranean town in North Africa called Oran. Dr. Bernard Rieux, one of the main characters, describes it as an ugly town. Oran’s inhabitants are boring people who appear to live, for the most part, habitual lives. The main focus of the town is money.
It was a bubonic plague that came from Asia and spread by black rats infested with fleas. The plague spread like a wildfire because people who lived in high populated areas were living very close to each other and had no idea what was the cause of the disease or how to cure it. The signs of the “inevitable death” where blood from the nose, fever, aching and swellings big as an “apple” in the groin or under the armpits. From there the disease spread through the body in different directions and soon after it changed into black spots that appeared on the arms and thighs. Due to the lack of medical knowledge, no doctors manage to find a remedy. Furthermore a large number of people without any kind of medical experience tried to help the sick but most of them failed “...there was now a multitude both of men and of women who practiced without having received the slightest tincture of medical science - and, being in ignorance of its source, failed to apply the proper remedies…” (Boccaccio). The plague was so deadly that it was enough for a person to get infected by only touching the close of the
The Black Death plague had disastrous consequences for Europe in the 14th century. After the initial outbreak in Europe, 1347, it continued for around five years and then mysteriously disappeared. However, it broke out again in the 1360s and every few decades thereafter till around 1700. The European epidemic was an outbreak of the bubonic plague, which began in Asia and spread across trade routes. When it reached Europe, a path of destruction began to emerge.
The plague was spread by fleas, which were not effected by the disease. Fleas first infected the rats, which lived off garbage and sewage. The rats then spread the infection to the humans. Rats were a common sight in the cities, due to the poor sanitary conditions, so no one suspected them (www.tartans.com). In the winter the plague seemed to disappear, but only because fleas were dormant then. Each spring, the plague attacked again, killing new victims (www.byu.edu). The effects of the plague were devastating. After just five years, twenty-five million people were dead - one third of Europe's population. Once people were infected they infected others very rapidly. As a result, in order to avoid the disease, many fled to the countryside where the lower population density helped to decrease the speed at which the disease spread (www.tartans.com). From a person's time of infection to his or her death was less than one week (www.home.nycap.rr.com). The plague became known as "The Black Death" because of the discoloration of the skin and black enlarged lymph nodes that appeared on the second day of contracting the disease. The term "The Black Death" was not invented until after 1800. Contemporaries called it "the pestilence" (Cantor 7).
Erica Tang Kearney Lit/Comp 10 11 October 2016 Dance of Death: The Dancing Plague of 1518: An Annotated Bibliography Andrews, Evan.
The Bubonic Plague, otherwise known as the Black Death was a raging disease. Most people thought of it as the physical Grim Reaper of their town or community. The disease lasted about six years, 1347 to 1352. The Bubonic Plague was a travesty that has traveled throughout Europe and has raged and decimated both large and small towns, putting Europe through a lot.
Until its eradication, smallpox was a disease that had been ravaging the human race for a very long time. It emerged as much as 10,000 years ago, probably in the Nile Valley and what is now the Middle East. This emergence occurred around the time that humans began to create farming communities and turn away from nomadic existence, thus allowing the smallpox virus a chance to move from person to person (Ogden 2). Since that time, outbreaks have occurred in all different regions of the globe, although the disease was not introduced into the New World until 1518 when a Spanish ship landed on the island of Hispaniola, thus wiping out half of the population. The Spanish sailors had previously been infected by a strain of the smallpox virus and were therefore immune. The natives, however, had never been exposed to the virus and their bodies were unable to fight it off at all. It is thought that as much as 90 percent of the native populations of the New World were killed by smallpox in conjunction with the other previously unseen diseases that were brought over by explorers (Ogden 3).