and their families.

The alleged rebellion of various nobles gave the emperors anexcuse to proscribe individuals, military units and sometimes even whole towns sothey could use the assets belonging to these people to swell the public treasury. Thisinflux of funds to the treasury explains why expenditures such as public works werecontinued under Severus and Caracalla. There is evidence to suggest that an officialadvisory position was set up to manage the funds acquired from these proscriptions,indicating that the amount collected was large enough to justify its own position tolook after distribution 138 . The Antonine plague had a huge impact upon thepopulation of the Roman provinces. The drop in population caused a permanent lossin annual income. The emperors in the time period from A.D. 180 to 212 needed asecond source of income to maintain the treasury. The emperors ruling during thistime period used the proscription of Roman nobility as a major source of income toreplace the insufficient provincial revenue.A passage from the work of Cassius Dio provides a summary for the conceptdiscussed within the second part of this chapter: Once when Julia chided him [Caracalla] for spending vast sums uponthem [soldiers] and said, There is no longer any source of revenue,either just or unjust, left to us, he replied, exhibiting his sword, Be of good cheer, mother: for as long as we have this, we shall not run short of money. The plague ravaged provinces were no longer able to provide an adequate income forthe revenue of the empire, which is the just revenue described by Julia. Themention of an unjust revenue points towards a loss in available nobility to proscribe 137

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Caracalla 4; Herodian 4.6.1-2,4. 138 Millar 1977:171-3 citing Inscr. Lat. Sel. 1421; Duncan-Jones 1994:6,15. 47

in order to acquire funds, as they had already been culled by Caracalla and theprevious emperors. The reply of Caracalla reinforces the common action of emperorsin the years after the plague to execute wealthy nobles and confiscate their assets tofund both the emperor and state. There may be bias against Caracalla by Cassius Dio,but the fact that the historian acknowledges these economic issues within his work means that they may have been prevalent during the reign of Caracalla.The Constitutio Antoniniana under Caracalla was the culmination of a centuryof economic turmoil. When the Antonine plague caused a loss of economic growthand of manpower, the tax base was lowered to a level insufficient to support theEmpire without raising taxes or acquiring funds from elsewhere. The proscriptionsbetween the late 2 nd and early 3 rd century A.D. relieved the economic pressure for alimited time, but took a toll on the higher echelons of Roman society. Both lower andhigher classes felt the strain of the effects of a declining post-plague economy. Thelaws instituted by Caracalla show that there was certainly not enough revenue comingin from the existing taxation system. Even Caracallas new taxes did nothing to helpthe economic stress already placed on both the lower and upper classes. The adventof citizenship to all free inhabitants expanded the degree to which the economic stressaffected the populace. Now all free inhabitants were expected to pay taxes that wereexpected from the citizen social class. These free inhabitants included the alreadyfinancially burdened lower classes still reeling from the plague. Taxation on adecreased population furthered the disintegration of the urban and rural populace untilthe mid-3 rd century when the economy could no longer handle the pressure. At thispoint the entire Empire struggled to maintain its expenditures; this would lead to theeconomic turmoil of the 3 rd century A.D.48

Consequences of Plague Mortality within the Military Marcus Aurelius began his reign at a time when military activity had settleddown. The previous emperor, Antoninus Pius, had promoted the concepts of peaceand recovery during a

relatively peaceful reign. The tide was about to change, as thetrickle of resistance at the northern borders was soon to turn into a raging torrent thatwould blast through the Roman perimeter in an explosive assault upon the Empire.The peace of the previous reign had given the Romans a sense of false securitytowards those enemies that lay beyond the Danubian provinces. But an unexpectedplague erupted at the eastern frontier which slowly engulfed the provinces andattacked the population. This decreased the effectiveness and recruitment capacity of the military ranks. With the Empire weakened and in a state of conflict, the northernbarbarians saw the perfect opportunity to strike out, attempting to occupy Romanland. Marcus Aurelius managed to repel these attacks to the outer limits of theEmpire, attempting to conquer the invading tribes with the ultimate view of incorporating them into the Empire. He settled allied tribes upon the borderlands toact as a buffer zone against the hostile tribes. These allied tribes were subject tomilitary service in return for the land which Marcus had supplied. Marcus was forcedto recruit soldiers who were not consistent with legionary standards, and to usebarbarians to support the remaining legions. This enlistment process threatened thelevel of loyalty to the Roman Empire in the legions and auxiliary units. The untimelydeath of Marcus in A.D. 180 interrupted his plans of annexation. His son Commodus,49

instead of continuing annexation, simply bribed the restless tribes into peace.Subsequent emperors imitated Commodus by providing donatives to tribes on theborder provinces in return for alliances, friendships and mercenary defence. Thisslow dilution of loyalty in the Roman army and the enlistment of mercenary troopswould last for centuries, and ultimately reveal one of the factors that led to thedownfall of the Roman Empire.It is hard to establish the effect of plague mortality on military numbers acrossthe Roman Empire, but within the sources there are hints of infection in Syria,northern Italy and Rome. Sources suggest that it started in the eastern areas of theEmpire, where it spread towards Rome and the western provinces. As we have seen,the mobile nature of the army helped the passage of the virus throughout the Empire. It was his [Lucius Verus] fate to seem to bring a pestilence with him towhatever provinces he traversed on his return, and finally even to Rome. It is believed that this pestilence originated in Babylonia, where a pestilential vapour arose in a temple of Apollo from a golden casket which a soldier had accidentally cut open, and that it spread thence over Parthia and the whole world 139 .Lucius Verus was the co-ruler appointed by Marcus Aurelius in the early yearsof his reign to deal with the Persian wars in the East while Marcus tended to thenorthern borders. As Lucius Verus returned from the Parthian war with the Danubianlegions, the plague spread with the army through the provinces until it reached Romein A.D. 166. When these legions returned home, they brought the disease to forts onthe northern frontiers. Military forts at this time

were of a hygienic standard, if notnecessarily comparable to today, but it was not the facilities in military establishments 139 Historia Augusta

Lucius Verus 8.1-4. 50

that acted as the major mode of infection. The density and close proximity of soldiersincreased the susceptibility to contagious diseases. Each century of eighty men wasaccommodated within one large building 140 . Each eight-man squad was given tworooms, one for living quarters and one for equipment. Glass finds around manybarracks in central Europe indicate that there were windows for each of these rooms,but in the colder provinces of northern Europe, windows may not have beenconsidered due to the low temperature 141 . The Valetudinarium was not significantlydifferent in accommodation capacity than the living quarters. Continuous pairs of cubicles were arranged in a rectangular shape surrounding a central courtyard. Eachcubicle held up to eight soldiers. These hospitals had a capacity of around 5 to 10 percent of the entire legion 142 .With a disease such as smallpox, which has a death rate of 25 to 30 per cent,one can imagine that the capacity of medical quarters during times of outbreaks waseasily exceeded. Sick soldiers may have been treated within their living quarters toconserve space. The living conditions within these facilities have been compared tothe insulae apartments that line the streets of Roman cities 143 . Gloomy, crowded, andwith little or no ventilation, the chance of infection was quite high. The lowtemperatures in the Northern provinces of Germany kept the soldiers indoors

duringboth winter and summer, increasing the chance for diseases to pass between them.Forts were also an important trade centre for the surrounding areas, drawingmerchants, tradesmen, and other workers. Once the disease attacked the military, itmay have spread through civilian workers into neighboring villages and cities,limiting the number of civilians available for local recruitment. 140 Goldsworthy 2003:86. 141 Goldsworthy 2003:86. 142 Goldsworthy 2003:87. 143 Goldsworthy 2003:87. 51

Sources for the period suggest that the Antonine plague had a drastic effect onthe armys population.Galen (Writing late 2 nd century/Early 3 rd century A.D.): When I reached Aquileia [in AD 168], the plague grew fiercer thanever, so much so that the Emperors immediately went back to Rome with a few soldiers, while the majority had difficulty in surviving. Most of usdied, not merely from the plague, but because the epidemic washappening in the depths of winter. 144

Cassius Dio (Early 3 rd century A.D.):

In returning, he [Lucius Verus] lost a great many of his soldiers through famine and disease, yet he got back to Syria with the survivors. 145 Historia Augusta - Marcus Aurelius (Late 3 rd century to Early 4 th century A.D.): He [Marcus Aurelius] himself singled out the Marcomannic war, a war which surpassed any in the memory of man and waged it with both valour and success, and that at a time when a grievous pestilence had carried away thousands of civilians and soldiers. 146

Eutropius (Approximately A.D. 369): ... as whole armies had been lost; since, under the emperor [Marcus Aurelius], after the victory over the Parthians, there occurred sodestructive a pestilence, that at Rome, and throughout Italy and the provinces, the greater part of the inhabitants, and almost all the troops,sunk under the disease. 147

144 Galen Opera Omnia (Kuhn 19.17-18). 145 Cassius Dio History 71.2.

146

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Marcus Aurelius 17.2. 147 Eutropius A Concise History of the Roman World

8.12. 52