A fear-inducing epidemic, probably of smallpox, that ravaged the Roman Empire and claimed the life of Roman Emperor Claudius II Gothicus during the third century A.D., have been discovered by Archaeologists.
The Italian Archaeological Mission to Luxor (MAIL), while working at the Funerary Complex of Harwa and Akhimenru in the west bank of the ancient city of Thebes (now, Luxor) in Egypt, found bodies coated with a thick layer of lime, which was used as disinfectant during ancient times. The researchers also found three furnaces where the lime was produced and an enormous bonfire where the plague victims were cremated.
The pandemic is now dubbed as the "Plague of Cyprian," to pay tribute to Saint Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, (in Tunisia), an early Christian writer who witnessed and described the plague as "a dreadful plague" which "invaded every house in succession" and "carrying off day by day numberless people." The outbreak is said to have claimed the lives of thousands of people before finally receding in AD 266.