POX ROMANA: The Plague that Shook the Roman World

Join Colin Elliott, author of POX ROMANA: The Plague that Shook the Roman World, as he combs through the historical record to explain how a mysterious disease ravaged the Roman Empire at the height of its political and economic prosperity. With slides and a series of guiding questions, Elliott will tell a riveting story in three parts: the “preexisting conditions” that led to a massive outbreak; the experiences of physicians and victims as the plague spread; and the post-pandemic conditions that brought the once-powerful Empire to ruin.

Saturday, May 11th @ 4:30 pm

The International Museum of Surgical Science

1524 N Lake Shore Drive, Chicago IL 60610

*Please arrive 10 minutes early

About the book: In the middle of the second century AD, Rome was in a period of peace, prosperity, and stability: the Pax Romana. Then, apparently out of nowhere, a sudden sickness struck the Empire and laid waste to cities from Britain to Egypt, including Rome itself. This fast-spreading disease, now known as the Antonine plague, may have been history’s first pandemic. Soon after its arrival, the Empire began its downward trajectory toward decline and fall. In POX ROMANA, historian Colin Elliott offers a comprehensive, wide-ranging account of this pivotal moment in Roman history. Elliott combs through all available evidence to prove that there were “preexisting conditions” that allowed the Antonine plague to flourish: from a sluggish economy to protracted military conflicts in the Middle East to food insecurity and religious persecution, the pandemic exposed the crumbling foundations of a doomed Empire. POX ROMANA provides a gripping account of how a mysterious disease—the origin of which puzzles historians to this day—was able to bring a major world power to its knees.

About the author: Colin Elliott is associate professor of history at Indiana University and the author of Economic Theory and the Roman Monetary Economy.

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Host or Publisher International Museum of Surgical Science