Born Then249–262
Life during the Plague of Cyprian
Be born in a place it hit, a few years before it began, and see what it did to five ordinary lives.
What it meant for ordinary people
An epidemic of uncertain cause, possibly a viral haemorrhagic fever or smallpox, began in Egypt around 249 and spread across the Roman world. It struck during the empire's third-century crisis of civil war and debased coinage. Bishop Cyprian of Carthage described it, which gave it its name.
Deaths: unknown; ancient writers report up to 5,000 deaths a day in Rome at its height.
How hard it hits each person in the game (risk of death, of being conscripted, of leaving) comes from our model, estimated from the sources.
Around the same time
- Wars of the Three Kingdoms 190–280
- Plague of Cyprian 249–262