25 Minutes on…Plague: ‘The Plague of Cyprian and the Crisis of the Roman Empire’ – Professor Andrew Wilson
- Date & time
- –
- Host
- All Souls College (College)
- Series
- All Souls College
- Location
- All Souls College - Old Library, Old Library, All Souls College, High Street, Oxford, Oxfordshire, OX1 4AL, United Kingdom
- Organisation
- Oxford
Topics
About this talk
Among the many problems that affected the Roman Empire in the third century AD — wars, revolts, invasions, earthquakes, and famine — was a disease known as ‘the Plague of Cyprian’ after St Cyprian of Carthage who describes it in his letters. This talk explores how archaeology can illuminate the effects of this pandemic, by looking at mass burials, shrinkage of cities, abandonment of rural settlements, and disruption to various forms of production. It argues that the plague of Cyprian provoked a systemic transformation of the empire and underlies the greater inequality characteristic of the late empire: hereditary professions, tied peasantry, and vast estates.
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