Plague of Cyprian

The Plague of Cyprian is the name given to a pandemic, probably of smallpox, that afflicted the Roman Empire from AD 250 onwards during the larger Crisis of the Third Century. It was still raging in 270, when it claimed the life of emperor Claudius II Gothicus. The plague is thought to have caused widespread manpower shortages in agriculture and the Roman army. Its modern name commemorates St. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, an early Christian writer who witnessed and described the plague.

In 250 to 266, at the height of the outbreak, 5000 people a day were said to be dying in Rome. Cyprian's biographer, Pontius of Carthage, wrote of the plague at Carthage:

In Carthage, the "Decian persecution", unleashed at the onset of the plague, sought out Christian scapegoats. Fifty years later, North African convert to Christianity Arnobius defended his new religion from pagan allegations:

Cyprian drew moralizing analogies in his sermons to the Christian community and drew a word picture of the plague's symptoms in his essay De mortalitate ("On the Plague"):

The plague still raged in 270: in the account of the wars against Goths waged by Claudius Gothicus given in the Historia Augusta, it is reported that "in the consulship of Antiochianus and Orfitus the favour of heaven furthered Claudius' success. For a great multitude, the survivors of the barbarian tribes, who had gathered in Haemimontum were so stricken with famine and pestilence that Claudius now scorned to conquer them further.... during this same period the Scythians attempted to plunder in Crete and Cyprus as well, but everywhere their armies were likewise stricken with pestilence and so were defeated."

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