Ahve, and welcome to Emperor of Rome, a podcast about the rulers of the ancient Roman Empire.

I'm your host Matt Smith, and with me today is Dr.

Leanne McNamara, a medical doctor and lecturer in classics at Latrobe University.

This is episode LXIX, Galen and the Antonine Plague. As the Parthian War comes to an end, the troops are dispersed throughout the Roman Empire,

and with them goes the Antonine Plague. The effects of the Plague will be felt for decades

to come and we know much about it through the extensive writings of the physician Galen.

He's Leanne McNamara.

If I was in the ancient world, what would I think of a plague?

I get the impression it's just a kind of a, oh look another plague has hit us.

Yes, a plague is a catch all phrase, I guess, for any epidemic disease outbreak and they were

absolutely effective life in the Roman world.

Were they frequent, were they life altering?

Absolutely they were frequent.

So pandemics on the scale of the Antonine plague were perhaps less common, but localized outbreaks were very common.

We absolutely see that referred to in much of the literature.

Livy is a good source for us for the Roman Republic.

He refers to a plague or a disease outbreak.

In the early books, perhaps before around all two 90s there's an outbreak about every eight years and

then after two 90 to about let's say 165 the average is about every five years there's a disease outbreak.

And was it the same disease rolling around more or less or?

Almost certainly not the same disease. It must have been outbreaks of different sorts of diseases, but they are not

interested in putting a diagnostic label on the outbreak in the same way that we are today.

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