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The legions had once again been victorious.
The inhabitants of the metropolis of Seleukeia on the Tigris (now Baghdad) had to painfully experience what that meant in AD 165.
It was looted and burned down.
Ctesiphon, the part of the twin city and residence of the Parthian great kings on the right bank of the river, was also destroyed.
The legionaries took their anger out on a temple.
In the Holy of Holies they found a mysterious narrow opening.
"In search of treasures, they expanded them, but then, as a result of Chaldean secret arts, a primordial ruin emerged from a closed, consecrated room, which immediately produced incurable diseases." This is how the Roman historian and officer Ammianus Marcellinus explained the origin of the epidemic, the center of the The so-called Antonine Plague came over the empire in the 160s.
A 24-year mass extinction followed.
The two antonines were the emperors Marc Aurel and Lucius Verus, who had succeeded their adoptive father Antoninus Pius in 161.
The Parthian King Vologaises IV saw this as an opportunity to appoint a ruler in Armenia that was convenient for him.
When the Roman governor of Cappadocia wanted to put a stop to this with his legions, he suffered a crushing defeat at Elegia.
In return, the Parthian went on a raid through Syria.
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In order to prove their ability to act, the two rulers immediately mobilized further legions.
In 163 the invaders were driven out of Syria and a Parthian prince was placed on the throne of Armenia.
In 165 the Roman army finally advanced to the Parthian capital Seleukeia-Ctesiphon, whose royal palace went up in flames.
Senior Emperor Mark Aurel (left; 121–180) and his younger co-regent Lucius Verus (130–169)
Source: picture alliance / akg / Steffens picture archive, picture alliance / akg-images / Nimatallah
While the victors were still celebrating their triumph in autumn, horror came over the country with the returning legions.
The pandemic continued to spread in northern Mesopotamia and Asia Minor for 165 years, and it reached Rome a year later.
Soon “the epidemic besmirched all land from the borders of the Persians to the Rhine and Gaul with contagion and death”, writes Ammianus Marcellinus, which speaks for the efficient infrastructure of the Roman Empire.
The imperial personal physician Galen was an eyewitness to the disaster and has repeatedly described it: Those affected developed a fever, diarrhea and sore throat.
From today's perspective, what at first glance may seem like an early rage by Corona is countered by the macular to pustular skin rash that appeared from around the ninth day of illness.
This and the severe lethality - in some areas almost a third of the population was killed - reminded Galen of the epidemic that raged in Athens at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War 430/29 and was described in detail by the historian Thucydides, himself infected.
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So it was probably not the plague transmitted by the bacterium Yersinia pestis that plagued the Mediterranean world under Emperor Justinian (r. 527-565) and Europe in the late Middle Ages.
Rather, it was “more of an epidemic that often ended fatally on the basis of smallpox,” the historian Jörn Kobes concludes.
Others have raised measles, Ebola or a severe flu epidemic.
At the height of the epidemic in Rome alone, 2000 people are said to have fallen victim every day, reports Cassius Dio.
Tax records from Egypt, where the disease arose early, suggest that in some villages almost 90 percent of the male population disappeared.
However, local unrest, robber gangs and the flight from tax collection are also likely to have been responsible for the losses.
In Athens it was impossible to win enough wealthy people for the prestigious but also expensive office of archon, as can be seen from a letter from Mark Aurel.
He charged the "blows of fate, after which ... many other cities also rushed to help".
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Since there was no question for contemporaries that the plague was of divine origin, the sacred sacrifices were reinforced and strict cult rules were issued.
But this did not get the disease under control.
Rather, it was made more difficult by the fact that the Parthian War resulted in another, far more dangerous conflict.
From 166 onwards, various barbaric peoples, which the Romans grouped together as Marcomanni, began to penetrate far into imperial territory from Bohemia and Hungary across the Danube.
The Roman mobilization was hindered not least by the epidemic, to which Lucius Verus died in 169.
"The epidemic had meanwhile torn such enormous gaps in the expeditionary army that the emperor (Marcus Aurelius) decided, contrary to tradition, to recruit soldiers from slaves, gladiators and Dalmatian bandits," says the ancient historian Armin Eich, describing the consequences.
Depiction of the Marcomannic Wars on the Mark Aurelian Column in Rome
Source: picture alliance / Bildagentur-o
While the loss-making wars against the Marcomanni dragged on, the epidemic subsided without, however, disappearing entirely.
Instead, it returned with power again in some regions in the late 160s and 170s and 190, only to eventually disappear completely.
Perhaps Marcus Aurelius was also carried off by her.
The loss of life and resources from the plague and permanent wars ended what historians have fondly described as the “Golden Age” of Rome.
A feeling of abandonment and powerlessness crept over the people, which was intensified by the destructive policies of Marcus Aurelius's successor Commodus and the civil war after his assassination.
The “golden age” was followed by an “iron age”, summed up the historian and senator Cassius Dio.
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