Book Review – Pox Romana

Pox Romana: The Plague That Shook the Roman World by Colin Elliott
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Colin Elliott serves up an exceptionally thorough consideration of the Antonine plague, the world’s first pandemic to leave a written historical record and a contributing factor to the end of the Pax Romana period in Roman history. It’s amazing that such a relatively short book can include careful (and unfortunately occasionally repetitive) study not only of the disease itself but also its complex interrelationship with climate, famine, war and social mismanagement, all of which proved to be a deadly combination in the later years of the reign of Marcus Aurelius. This is worth a read for anyone with an interest in the history of either Rome or epidemiology or both.

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