Virus, the most lethal enemies of Rome

Virus, the most lethal enemies of Rome


¿Could the viruses contribute to the decline of Rome? Imperial engineers and architects summed up the greatness of their civilization in cities that already anticipated the building / spec- tacle, such as the Pantheon, the Colosseum and the market of Trajan, and which meant a stone translation of their culture. But, in spite of that early success that was the Cloaca Máxima, the Eternal City "was infested with rats and flies and small animals squawked in alleys and courtyards. There was no theory about germs, people almost never washed their hands and contamination of food could not be prevented. The ancient city was an unhealthy home. The small diseases caused by the fecal-oral route, which induced fatal diarrhea, were probably the main cause of death in the Roman Empire. "

This, at least, argues Kyle Harper, author of "The Fateful Fate of Rome," a controversial but thorough essay on the impact of climate and disease on the decline of Rome. "On three occasions," he explains, "the empire was shaken by pandemic episodes with an amazing geographic scope. In the year 165 d. C., antonin plague broke out, probably caused by smallpox. In 249 d. C., an unknown pathogen swept the territories dominated by Ro-ma. And in 541 d. C. arrived and remained for more than two hundred years the first great pandemic of "Yersinia pestis", the agent that causes the bubonic plague ».

Apart from the political decline and invasions, the barbarians who still amaze the imagination and what a bad reputation they carry with them, it is clear to the historian that viruses and climatic variations triggered a series of episodes that diminished the vitality and capabilities of Rome. The empire went back successfully each of these crises, but each time with greater difficulties, until Alaric sacked the capital in the fifth century and a convulsion traveled the world.

The burden of malaria

There were several factors that contributed to the appearance and spread of diseases throughout the territories, such as the felling of forests, drainage of river basins and the construction of a network of roads (throughout the length and breadth of the empire) that facilitated the movement of the legions quickly, but that also helped the spread of viral agents. "In the Roman Empire, the revenge that nature took was ominous. The main agent of this reprisal was malaria. Propagated by mosquito bites, malaria was a drag on Roman civilization. The vaunted hills of Rome are mounds that rise above a divinized swamp. The river basin, not to mention the pools and fountains that dotted the city. " In these ecosystems, the anopheles reproduced without problems. "The disease was a ruthless assassin both in the cities and in the countryside," writes Harper, recalling the impact of malaria that, every five or eight years, degenerated into an epidemic and, together with tuberculosis and leprosy (which were «Chronic infections») became a lethal agent.

Despite the insalubrity and bad cleaning habits, the historian clarifies: "The great assassins of the Roman Empire were generated in nature. They were exotic and deadly intruders from outside. " And it was those viruses that left a deep mark on the population and the memory of the Romans.

The so-called plague Antonina was one of the most famous. It spread quickly and its description coincides with smallpox: macular eruptions all over the body and face, and "painful lesions in the throat and mouth." "Historians have placed the mortality between 2 percent and more than a third of the imperial population, a fork that goes from 1.5 to twenty-five million dead," says the author, who, however, exposes his reservations to the time to take the figures as absolute truths due to the centuries that have elapsed.

According to the Chronicle of Jerónimo, the army was very affected by this pandemic: "He had lost between 15 and 20 percent of his men, if not more, in the initial wave." The documents give an account of the hurry that the legions ran and the new recruitment process that was opened to cover casualties.

Rome overcame this demographic crisis, but in the third century it had to face the ravages of a pestilence coming from Ethiopia that ran through the empire. The so-called Cipriano plague hit almost every city and was latent among the populations for years. The description of this disease is familiar: "The strength of the body dissolves, the entrails dissipate suddenly; a fire that starts in the deepest pro-voca wounds in the throat; the intestines are agitated with continuous vomiting; the eyes were frozen by the force of blood; in some cases, the deadly rot infection cuts off the feet or other extremities; and, when the weakness for the failures and losses of the body prevails, the gaits deteriorate, the hearing is blocked or the vision is blind ».

The pathology, according to Harper, "included fatigue, bloody stools, fever, lesions in the esophagus, vomiting, conjunctival hemorrhage and severe infection of the extremities." Its impact in Alexandria was lethal: its population dropped by almost 62 percent (from about 500,000 to 190,000). "Only one family of hemorrhagic viruses seems to coincide with the pathology and epidemiology of the Cipriano plague: the filoviruses, whose best known representative is the Ebola virus."

Borders in danger

The eclosion of this disease proceeds, according to studies, of an ecological change, and affected the defensive system of the Roman Empire. "Once the pestilence eroded the border shield, the structural weakness of the Roman system was exposed to hungry and ambitious people who lived beyond their borders and held ancestral grudges to the belligerent empire. There is no doubt about the causal importance of the pandemic in the military crisis, since it exposed the latent threat and allowed the border system to be overtaken by the violent swell ».

Rome once again overcame this blow of destiny, but in the fourth century, a change in climate inaugurated a period of droughts, famines and pandemic outbreaks that make us think again of smallpox (such as 312 and 313 AD). ), which, again, weakened the power of Rome. To this should be added the irruption of the Huns in 370 AD. C. and, then, a final blow: the Goths started a revolt and stood up to the emperor Valens and his army, made up of elite troops. «On August 9, 378 d. C., (the empeador) joined the battle on the outskirts of the city of Adrianople without waiting for reservations from the west and with little information from his spies. The result was the worst military defeat in the history of Rome. Valente himself died in the massacre. "

Harper comments: "The Roman side lost two thirds of its men and the number of up to 20,000 victims seems realistic. The elite of the eastern army was annihilated. The sudden loss of so many good soldiers and experienced commanders of the empire was ominous (...). The blow to the force of the army was felt for a long time. Some regiments were never replaced. " Rome arrived weakened at one of the final moments of her existence. What nature did not snatch from him was bad politics and internal rivalries. Alaric had at hand what Hannibal never had: Rome.

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