Antonine Plague
While estimations about the Antonine Plague of 165 – 180 AD vary, it was undoubtedly a deadly ancient pandemic of epic proportions. It is believed that the illness was brought to the Roman Empire by troops returning from several campaigns in the Near East (Western Asia, Turkey and Egypt).
The illness was described by a Greek physician Galen, thus the outbreak is also known as the Plague of Galen. Thanks to such reports, scientists today believe it to have been either measles or smallpox. Most notably, it is said that it also took the life of Lucius Verus, a Roman emperor and co-regent Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, after which the plague was more formally known.
It broke out once more nine years later and thanks to the Roman historians, we know that up to 2,000 people died per day. What it comes down to is this: around 5 million people were killed by the Antonine plague, bringing the disease mortality rate to 25%.
