Disease in Imperial Rome

There were a variety of potential causes of these diseases present in the highly dense and quickly growing society's way of living.

The sewage systems, the public bathing houses, and the diet of citizens in Imperial Rome all contributed to the spread of disease.

Another source of water that proved to be dangerous was the Tiber River, which the Roman Army drank from, contributing to their vulnerability to many diseases.

[3] The sewer systems had an extremely complex design and for the most part succeeded in providing Romans with adequate amounts of relatively clean water for consumption and bathing.

In fact, a study by Dr. Arthur Aufderheide of the University of Minnesota revealed that "Romans had 10 more times lead in their bones than modern Americans.

[6] Some scholars speculate that the levels of alcohol consumed on a daily basis were more to blame for the health ailments of the aristocrats of Rome, with the average consumption rate being approximately 3 bottles of wine a day.

[8] This strategy did not completely solve the problem, as most of the waste was just moved outside the city limits meaning the risk for contamination and odor was still present.

[11] Due to the high poverty rate in Rome, it was uncommon for the middle class citizens to own a private bath, according to journalist Jay Stuller.

[citation needed] While the bathing system may not have been pristine, abstaining from cleanliness altogether brought upon many more potentially fatal diseases, especially in infants.

Rome's population was unprecedentedly large in the ancient world, reaching 1 million during the high point of the Empire.

Paired with the poor living conditions that many Romans experienced, the city was a perfect breeding ground for disease.

Rome had an extremely high population, and remnants of buildings suggest the average living space was very small.

The plague, generally believed to be smallpox, was possibly brought by soldiers returning from the campaign in Western Asia, leading to catastrophic results for the Roman populace, whom had likely never been exposed to the disease before.

It is estimated that up to 15% of the Roman population was wiped out during the ten year plague, including Emperor Marcus Aurelius in 180 CE.

[citation needed] The Antonine Plague was named after the emperor whose reign it originated in, Aurelius Antoninus, according to Louise Cilliers and Francis Retief.

Historical sources suggest that Roman soldiers returning from campaign in Mesopotamia spread the disease, which lasted from 165 to 180 AD.

[17] Based on the written observations of fever, diarrhea, and boils by the Greek physician Galen, historians infer that smallpox caused the plague.

[18] Including substantial army deaths, the outbreaks decimated an estimated two thirds of the Roman population, killing roughly 2000 people per day.

[19] The Plague of Cyprian, (249-262 AD) caused widespread shortages across the empire, and was one of the major contributing factors to the Crisis of the Third Century.

Due to a lack of sources, the nature of the causative agent of the plague is speculative with smallpox, measles, zoonotic influenza or viral hemorrhagic fever having all been suggested.

[23] However, according to an article published by Kristin Harper in 2008, ancient European civilizations may have had a related form of the bacterium but not venereal syphilis itself, which may have had its origin in the pre-Columbian Americas.

[24] The term ‘syphilis" was coined later on by a 15th-century Italian poet Girolamo Fracastoro, who wrote an epic poem of a boy named Syphilus who insulted Apollo, and was in turn punished with the disease.

An excavation of a village shows signs of a serious malaria problem, with bone tests and traces of honeysuckle, a plant used to treat fevers.

Mentagra, notably thought by the Imperial Romans to be spread by kissing, was a skin disease most commonly starting in the chin and moving on to the entire face and sometimes other body parts.

[19] Respiratory diseases, most prominently anthracosis, were common due to pollution in Roman homes according to Professor Luigi Capasso.

[28] Rome had a few prominent physicians in its Imperial era who came up with treatment for various diseases, and were generally the only source of medicinal information.

Each specialist had different methods and the ways of treating diseases was very varied, causing most treatments to be extremely useless due to the lack of consistency.

These methods that he practiced included studying anatomy and using many different procedures in an attempt to find reliable ways of treatment.