The Plague of Cyprian is the name given to a pandemic, probably of smallpox, that afflicted the Roman Empire from AD 250 onwards during the larger Crisis of the Third Century. It was still raging in 270, when it claimed the life of emperor Claudius II Gothicus. The plague is thought to have caused widespread manpower shortages in agriculture and the Roman army. Its modern name commemorates St. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, an early Christian writer who witnessed and described the plague.