History is dotted with epidemics and plagues, but a certain number of them stand out as unique for their severity and impact on future generations. This is a list of the worst plagues in man’s recorded history.
10 Moscow Plague and Riot
1771
The first signs of plague in Moscow appeared in late 1770, which would turn into a major epidemic in the spring of 1771. The measures undertaken by the authorities, such as creation of forced quarantines, destruction of contaminated property without compensation or control, closing of public baths, etc., caused fear and anger among the citizens. The city’s economy was mostly paralyzed because many factories, markets, stores, and administrative buildings had been closed down. All of this was followed by acute food shortages, causing deterioration of living conditions for the majority of the Muscovites. Dvoryane (Russian nobility) and well-off city dwellers left Moscow due to the plague outbreak. On the morning of September 17, 1771, around 1000 people gathered at the Spasskiye gates again, demanding the release of captured rebels and elimination of quarantines. The army managed to disperse the crowd yet again and finally suppressed the riot. Some 300 people were brought to trial. A government commission headed by Grigory Orlov was sent to Moscow on September 26 to restore order. It took some measures against the plague and provided citizens with work and food, which would finally pacify the people of Moscow.
9 Great Plague of Marseille
1720 – 1722
The Great Plague of Marseille was one of the most significant European outbreaks of bubonic plague in the early 18th century. Arriving in Marseille, France in 1720, the disease killed 100,000 people in the city and the surrounding provinces. However, Marseille recovered quickly from the plague outbreak. Economic activity took only a few years to recover, as trade expanded to the West Indies and Latin America. By 1765, the growing population was back at its pre-1720 level. This epidemic was not a recurrence of the European Black Death, the devastating episodes of bubonic plague which began in the fourteenth century. Attempts to stop the spread of plague included an Act of Parliament of Aix that levied the death penalty for any communication between Marseille and the rest of Provence. To enforce this separation, a plague wall, the Mur de la Peste, was erected across the countryside (pictured above).
8 Antonine Plague
165 - 180 AD
The Antonine Plague (also known as the Plague of Galen, who described it), was an ancient pandemic, of either smallpox or measles, brought back to the Roman Empire by troops returning from campaigns in the Near East. The epidemic claimed the lives of two Roman emperors — Lucius Verus, who died in 169, and his co-regent who ruled until 180, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, whose family name, Antoninus, was given to the epidemic. The disease broke out again nine years later, according to the Roman historian Dio Cassius, and caused up to 2,000 deaths a day at Rome, one quarter of those infected. Total deaths have been estimated at five million. Disease killed as much as one-third of the population in some areas, and decimated the Roman army. The epidemic had drastic social and political effects throughout the Roman Empire, particularly in literature and art. Pictured above is a plague pit containing the remains of people who died in the Antonine Plague.
7 Plague of Athens
430–427 BC
The Plague of Athens was a devastating epidemic which hit the city-state of Athens in ancient Greece during the second year of the Peloponnesian War (430 BC), when an Athenian victory still seemed within reach. It is believed to have entered Athens through Piraeus, the city’s port and sole source of food and supplies. The city-state of Sparta, and much of the eastern Mediterranean, was also struck by the disease. The plague returned twice more, in 429 BC and in the winter of 427/6 BC. Modern historians disagree on whether the plague was a critical factor in the loss of the war. However, it is generally agreed that the loss of this war may have paved the way for the success of the Macedonians and, ultimately, the Romans. The disease has traditionally been considered an outbreak of the bubonic plague in its many forms, but re-considerations of the reported symptoms and epidemiology have led scholars to advance alternative explanations. These include typhus, smallpox, measles, and toxic shock syndrome.
6 Great Plague of Milan
1629–1631
The Italian Plague of 1629–1631 was a series of outbreaks of bubonic plague which occurred from 1629 through 1631 in northern Italy. This epidemic, often referred to as Great Plague of Milan, claimed the lives of approximately 280,000 people, with the cities of Lombardy and Venice experiencing particularly high death rates. This episode is considered one of the last outbreaks of the centuries-long pandemic of bubonic plague which began with the Black Death. German and French troops carried the plague to the city of Mantua in 1629, as a result of troop movements associated with the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648). Venetian troops, infected with the disease, retreated into northern and central Italy, spreading the infection. Overall, Milan suffered approximately 60,000 fatalities out of a total population of 130,000.
5 American Plagues
16th Century
Before the European arrival, the Americas had been largely isolated from the Eurasian–African landmass. First large-scale contacts between Europeans and native people of the American continents brought overwhelming pandemics of measles and smallpox, as well as other Eurasian diseases. These diseases spread rapidly among native peoples, often ahead of actual contact with Europeans, and led to a drastic drop in population and the collapse of American cultures. Smallpox and other diseases invaded and crippled the Aztec and Inca civilizations in Central and South America in the 16th century. This disease, with loss of population and death of military and social leaders, contributed to the downfall of both American empires and the subjugation of American peoples to Europeans. Diseases, however, passed in both directions; syphilis was carried back from the Americas and swept through the European population, decimating large numbers.
4 Great Plague of London
1665 – 1666
The Great Plague (1665-1666) was a massive outbreak of disease in England that killed 75,000 to 100,000 people, up to a fifth of London’s population. The disease was historically identified as bubonic plague, an infection by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, transmitted through fleas. The 1665-1666 epidemic was on a far smaller scale than the earlier “Black Death” pandemic, a virulent outbreak of disease in Europe between 1347 and 1353. The Bubonic Plague was only remembered afterwards as the “great” plague because it was one of the last widespread outbreaks in England. Although the disease causing the epidemic has historically been identified as bubonic plague and its variants, no direct evidence of plague has ever been uncovered. Some modern scholars suggest that the symptoms and incubation period indicate that the causal agent may have been a disease similar to a viral hemorrhagic fever. Pictured above is a list of mortalities from the time of the plague.
3 Plague of Justinian
541 – 542
The Plague of Justinian was a pandemic that afflicted the Byzantine Empire, including its capital Constantinople, in the years 541–542 AD. The most commonly accepted cause of the pandemic is bubonic plague, which later became infamous for either causing or contributing to the Black Death of the 14th century. Its social and cultural impact is comparable to that of the Black Death. In the views of 6th century Western historians, it was nearly worldwide in scope, striking central and south Asia, North Africa and Arabia, and Europe as far north as Denmark and as far west as Ireland. The plague would return with each generation throughout the Mediterranean basin until about 750. The plague would also have a major impact on the future course of European history. Modern historians named it after the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I, who was in power at the time and himself contracted the disease. Modern scholars believe that the plague killed up to 5,000 people per day in Constantinople at the peak of the pandemic. It ultimately killed perhaps 40% of the city’s inhabitants. The initial plague went on to destroy up to a quarter of the human population of the eastern Mediterranean.
2 The Third Pandemic
1855 – 1950s
“Third Pandemic” is the name given to a major plague pandemic that began in the Yunnan province (pictured above) in China in 1855. This episode of bubonic plague spread to all inhabited continents, and ultimately killed more than 12 million people in India and China alone. According to the World Health Organization, the pandemic was considered active until 1959, when worldwide casualties dropped to 200 per year. The bubonic plague was endemic in populations of infected ground rodents in central Asia, and was a known cause of death among migrant and established human populations in that region for centuries; however, an influx of new people due to political conflicts and global trade led to the distribution of this disease throughout the world. New research suggests Black Death is lying dormant.
1 The Black Death
1347 - 1351
The Black Death (also known as The Black Plague or Bubonic Plague), was one of the deadliest pandemics in human history, widely thought to have been caused by a bacterium named Yersinia pestis (Plague), but recently attributed by some to other diseases. The origins of the plague are disputed among scholars. Some historians believe the pandemic began in China or Central Asia in the late 1320s or 1330s, and during the next years merchants and soldiers carried it over the caravan routes until in 1346 it reached the Crimea in southern Russia. Other scholars believe the plague was endemic in southern Russia. In either case, from Crimea the plague spread to Western Europe and North Africa during the 1340s. The total number of deaths worldwide is estimated at 75 million people, approximately 25–50 million of which occurred in Europe. The plague is thought to have returned every generation with varying virulence and mortalities until the 1700s. During this period, more than 100 plague epidemics swept across Europe.
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Contributor: JFrater
译文:
史上发生的十大最严重瘟疫
历史上，各种传染病和瘟疫时有发生，但其中有些产生的后果尤为严重，对人类后代的影响也非常突出。下面是一份有史记录最令人恐惧的瘟疫一览表。
莫斯科最早出现瘟疫迹象是在1770年底，但在1771年春季疫情就大规模爆发。政府对此采取了强迫隔离，无偿与不节制销毁受污染财物，关闭公共浴池等一系列措施，然而这些措施引发了民众的恐慌和愤怒。工厂，市场，商店，和行政大楼纷纷关门使得整座城市经济几乎陷入了瘫痪的状态。紧跟其后粮食也出现了严重短缺，造成大部分莫斯科人的生存环境日趋恶化。由于瘟疫的爆发， 财团（俄罗斯贵族）和富裕的城市居民都相继离开莫斯科。1771年9月17日早晨，大约1000人再次聚集在Spasskiye大门闹事，要求释放被俘的叛民和消除隔离限制。军队设法驱离围观的群众，最终成功的镇压了此次暴乱。并有300人在此次暴动中受到了审判。9月26日，以卡拉辛·奥尔洛夫为首的政府委员会被派前往莫斯科恢复“秩序”。为减轻瘟疫带来的影响，奥尔洛夫采取了一些措施。如提供市民工作机会和发放救济食品，最终安抚了莫斯科市民的民心。
马赛大瘟疫是18世纪初欧洲爆发淋巴腺鼠疫最为严重的一次。它1720年抵达法国马赛，该种疾病导致了市内和周边地区约十万人丧生。不过，马赛在瘟疫过后很快就恢复过来了。其经济活动仅用了几年时间就达到了疫前的水平，随着贸易不断向西印度群岛和拉丁美洲的扩展。到1765年，马赛的人口增长也恢复到1720年之前的水平。此次瘟疫不是欧洲在14世纪开始传播的黑死病再次爆发。为了阻止瘟疫的蔓延，政府出台了一项艾克斯法令，对任何违反这个命令在马赛及其周边地区往来的人都一律处死。为执行这个隔离政策，政府还在市郊建立了一堵鼠疫墙（如上图）。
安东尼瘟疫（也称加伦鼠疫，他曾对该疫症做过详细的描述），是一种古老的流行病——天花或者麻疹。它由罗马帝国在近东打战归来的士兵带过来的。该种传染病夺去了罗马两位皇帝的性命——一位是维鲁斯，他死于169年，另一位是他的继承人马可·奥勒利乌斯·安东尼——安东尼是他的姓，公元180年，也因感染此病而死。9年后瘟疫再次爆发，根据罗马历史学家狄奥·卡西乌斯的记载，罗马当时每天有将近2000人死亡，这个数字相当于被感染者的四分之一。死亡总人数当时估计达5百万。在某些地方，瘟疫更是造成了当地总人口三分之一的死亡，罗马军队的战斗力也因此大大的被消弱。这一传染病对整个罗马帝国的社会和政治，特别是文学和艺术影响强烈。上图鼠疫坑里是在安东尼瘟疫中丧命的亡者遗骸。
雅典瘟疫是古希腊在伯罗奔尼撒战争第二年（公元前430年）爆发的一次对雅典城邦具有毁灭性打击的一种传染病，当时的雅典在战争中即将取得胜利却因瘟疫败得一沓涂地。据认为该瘟疫是通过比雷埃夫斯进入雅典的，而比雷埃夫斯是雅典的港口，同时它也是雅典食物及其他供应品的唯一来源。斯巴达与东地中海许多城邦也受到这种疾病的袭击。该疫情后来至少又发生了两次，一次是在公元前429年，另一次在427年冬天。但近代历史学家不同意瘟疫是导致雅典在战争中失利的关键这一说法。然而，人们普遍认为，雅典在战争中的失败为后来的马其顿人，特别是罗马人的成功铺平了道路。该疾病历来也被视为是一种综合性的黑死病，但学者在重新对其所报道的症状思考和参看流行病学后提出了其他的解释方案。这些解释包括了斑疹伤寒，天花，麻疹，以及中毒性休克综合症等。
1629年至1631年意大利北部地区爆发了一系列淋巴腺鼠疫。这种传染病，通常也称之为米兰大瘟疫，它造成了大约28万人死亡，其中伦巴第和威尼斯两个城市的死亡人数最多。这次瘟疫被认为是自黑死病爆发以来长达几个世纪之久的淋巴腺鼠疫疫情的最后一次席卷。1629年，德国和法国的部队首先将瘟疫带到了曼图亚，随着军队的继续行进再加上30年战争（1618-1648）。最后威尼斯军队传染了这种疾病，当他们撤退到意大利北部及中部时，也将疾病传播到这些地区。造成米兰13万人口中有将近6万人感染了这种疾病。
欧洲人到来之前，美洲已基本上是一块与欧亚非相隔绝的大陆。然欧洲人和美洲大陆的土著居民第一次大规模接触也给美洲人带来了麻疹，天花，以及其他欧亚人的疾病。这些疾病通常是在他们事先与欧洲人有过实际接触之后才感染的，病毒在原住民中迅速传播，导致了人口急的剧下降与美洲文化的崩溃。天花和其他疾病的入侵，也摧毁了阿兹特克与16世纪中南美洲的印加文明。伴随着人口的不断减少与军队战斗力和社会领袖人物的丧失，这些疾病使得一些美洲帝国逐步走向衰落，同时也让欧洲人征服美洲有了可乘之机。然疾病的传播也具有双向性，从美洲感染的梅毒迅速在欧洲传染，夺去了很多欧洲人的生命。
大瘟疫（1665 – 1666年），是指在英格兰大规模爆发的一种疾病，它造成了7.5万至10万人的丧生，死亡人数占到了当时伦敦人口的五分之一。这种疾病历史上被确定为淋巴腺鼠疫，鼠疫耶尔森氏菌是通过跳蚤进行传播的。1665至1666年的疫情比早先流行的“黑死病”规模要小，黑死病它是1347至1353年在欧洲爆发的一种致命性疾病。这场淋巴腺鼠疫后来之所以被称为“大”瘟疫，是因为它是英格兰最后一次大规模爆发的传染病。虽然这种疾病曾一度流行，以及它在历史上被称之为淋巴腺鼠疫与产生过一些变体，但至今没有发现与瘟疫相关的直接证据。一些现代学者们认为，该瘟疫的发病症状与潜伏期表明，它的病理与一种病毒性出血热的疾病相似。上图上一份在瘟疫中丧生的人数清单。
查士丁尼瘟疫是指在公元541-542年发生在拜占庭帝国，包括其首都君士坦丁堡在内的一场流行病。人们普遍认为导致这种流行病的原因是淋巴腺鼠疫，该鼠疫后来诱发或导致了14世纪臭名昭著的黑死病。但它对社会和文化的影响毫不逊色于黑死病。6世纪的西方历史学家认为，就其发生范围而言，它可谓是一次世界性的瘟疫，它不仅席卷了中亚，南亚地区，北非和阿拉伯，还达到了欧洲最北端的丹麦，最西面的爱尔兰。直到公元750年该瘟疫结束，它影响了整个地中海盆地的每一代人。鼠疫也对欧洲历史发展进程也产生了重大的影响。现代历史学家在东罗马帝国皇帝查士丁尼一世死后将其命名为查士丁尼瘟疫 ，是因为当时是他执政，而且他本人也是因感染鼠疫而死的。现代学者们认为，在鼠疫高峰期，君士坦丁堡每天都有近5000人丧生。最终可能导致了君士坦丁堡40%的城市居民死亡。最初爆发的鼠疫紧接着造成了东地中海四分之一的人口死于非命。
第三次鼠疫大流行”是指1855年始于中国云南（如上图）的一场特大流行病。这次淋巴腺鼠疫在全世界范围内广为传播，仅在印度和中国它最终夺走了12万多人的生命。据世界卫生组织分析，这次大流行一直到1959年才结束，造成全世界每年200位人为之死亡。该鼠疫原是中亚地区居民因受啮齿类动物的感染而产生的一种地方性疾病，并且几个世纪以来，它一直是造成移民和当地常住人口死亡的一个原因，然而，由于政治冲突和全球贸易的推动使得新人不断涌入这个地区从而让鼠疫被传播到世界各地。新的研究表明，该鼠疫是属黑死病的潜伏期。
黑死病（又称鼠疫或腺鼠疫），是人类历史上最致命的流行病之一，普遍认为它是由一种名为耶尔森氏菌（鼠疫）的细菌造成的。但最近有人认为它是其他疾病引起的。学者们对鼠疫的起源也争议纷呈。一些历史学家认为该种流行病始于十四世纪二三十年代的中国或中亚地区，并在随后几年由商人和士兵沿着商道在1346年传染到了俄罗斯南部的克里米亚地区。其他学者则认为鼠疫起源于俄罗斯的南部地区。不论是那种猜测，瘟疫都是在14世纪四十年代从克里米亚蔓延到西欧和北非的。黑死病造成全世界死亡人数估计为7500万，其中欧洲的死亡人数为2500万至5000万。随后瘟疫时有发生，但它造成的严重程度与死亡数目各不相同，一直到18世纪结束为止。在此期间内，有超过100种流行性疾病席卷了整个欧洲。
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撰稿人: JFrater