01-28-2020, 03:09 PM
Nathan Ross said:
Harper neatly disproves the idea that the disease (probably smallpox) was brought from Parthia by the returning troops of Lucius Verus, and mentions that 'most efforts to gauge mortality of the Antonine Plague have fallen somewhere between 10-20 percent' with highs of 'possibly up to 22-24 percent.' (p.115)
Hi Nathan this looks like an interesting book and I have ordered it but I was just curious on how Harper disproves the theory that the plague (smallpox/measles was carried back by Roman troops after they sacked Seleucia. Without proper medical evidence we can never prove that they are the same but the Han reported large disease events which historians believe were either smallpox or measles in 161-162 AD, 173 AD, 179 AD and again in 182 AD in its North-West regions all very similar in dates and indicates an east to west movement. India too has always had smallpox and Egypt also got hit as well. This seemed different to the Plague of Athens which I think scientists think may have been typhus. Just curious as to how he came to that conclusion.
Harper neatly disproves the idea that the disease (probably smallpox) was brought from Parthia by the returning troops of Lucius Verus, and mentions that 'most efforts to gauge mortality of the Antonine Plague have fallen somewhere between 10-20 percent' with highs of 'possibly up to 22-24 percent.' (p.115)
Hi Nathan this looks like an interesting book and I have ordered it but I was just curious on how Harper disproves the theory that the plague (smallpox/measles was carried back by Roman troops after they sacked Seleucia. Without proper medical evidence we can never prove that they are the same but the Han reported large disease events which historians believe were either smallpox or measles in 161-162 AD, 173 AD, 179 AD and again in 182 AD in its North-West regions all very similar in dates and indicates an east to west movement. India too has always had smallpox and Egypt also got hit as well. This seemed different to the Plague of Athens which I think scientists think may have been typhus. Just curious as to how he came to that conclusion.
Regards
Michael Kerr
Michael Kerr
"You can conquer an empire from the back of a horse but you can't rule it from one"
"You can conquer an empire from the back of a horse but you can't rule it from one"
