Interesting - thanks!
I definitely remember the guide pointing out lesions on the bones that he said indicated syphilis, but I can't remember now which part of the skeleton (the skull or legs, or indeed both).
I revisited the subject just now, it seems these might not be possible to distinguish from other
treponemal [you learn a new word every day] diseases such as bejel.
Folks travelled in Roman times - the cemetery at Baldock, England, apparently included at least two suspected sub-Saharan Africans, perhaps where the population would have been exposed to bejel?
The Rothschild's article was from 1997; it seems in 2011 the research still had a way to go:
Morbus gallicus in the Roman Empire Perhaps since then someone has done the DNA bit?
background to the cemetery:
The Cemeteries of Roman Baldock
i must get back to work, now, FRegards.