Malaria is one of the world’s oldest and deadliest diseases. In 2017, 219 million cases of malaria claimed 435,000 lives.
Malaria was no less brutal in the Roman Empire, where it was known as Roman Fever. Millions died in the first five or so centuries AD, and children, pregnant women, and the elderly were especially susceptible.
In 2016, a British scientist proved conclusively that the most dangerous type of malaria alive now was just as lethal then, with most of the deaths occurring in the warm wet season–August and September were particularly bad. Since Sirius rose just before the sun this time of year, malaria was also known as the “rage of the Dog Star.” The word malaria comes from the Italian words mala aria, literally bad air, but was not used as a name for the disease until the 15th century.
Swampy areas around the city became breeding grounds for mosquitoes carrying the disease-causing parasites. Realizing the connection between stagnant water and disease, Rome began draining the swamps. Scientists knew the swamps had something to do with the disease, but attributed it to “bad air,” noxious vapors given off by the marshy areas. (The Chinese recognized the causal link between mosquitoes and malaria as early as the 8th century BC.)
THUNDERSTORM IN THE ROMAN CAMPAGNA, 1868
Albert Venus (German, 1842–1871)
Agriculture writer Lucius Columella (4-70 AD) associated invisible “animaculi” with the fevers: ” . . . during the heat a marsh throws up a noxious poison and breeds animals armed with aggressive little stingers, which fly upon us in very thick swarms… whereby hidden diseases are often contracted, the causes of which not even the physicians can ascertain.”
Scholar Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 BCE) had also blamed tiny insects, which entered the mouth carrying disease. “there are bred certain minute creatures which cannot be seen by the eyes, which float in the air and enter the body through the mouth and nose and there cause serious diseases. “
To avoid the fevers, wealthy Romans avoided the area and built their villas on high hills. Farmers were left to build houses with windows facing away from the swamps as they tilled the more arable land nearby.
Malaria causes periodic fevers, headaches, chills, and sweating, which were treated with honeysuckle dissolved in wine, a plant commonly used in the treatment of fevers. I gave Epaphroditos malaria in Deep Calling Deep. Scripture says he became so sick he almost died.
Some say King Tut, Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan succumbed to this fever. There are even some who attribute the fall of Rome to malaria. That’s a lot of power to ascribe to a microscopic organism!