THE Athens plague it was an epidemic outbreak that hit the city of Athens between 430 BC. Ç. and 427 a. Ç. This epidemic caused thousands of deaths in this city, one of the biggest in the Greece Ancient, and everything we know about this disease was reported by Thucydides, a Greek historian.
The plague of Athens took place at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War, a conflict between Athens and Sparta. Currently, it is not known which disease affected the Greek city, and, in this sense, the hypotheses worked on are: typhus, typhoid fever, measles, among others. It is speculated that about 1/3 of the population of Athens died as a result of the epidemic.
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Origin of the Athens Plague
We know very little of this epidemic that hit Athens, and what we do know was reported by Thucydides, a Greek historian who was also famous for narrating the
WarofPeloponnese. He was living in Athens when the illness came there, and accounts of him were based on what he personally witnessed. He contracted the disease but managed to survive.Thucydides said that the disease that hit Athens arose in southern Egypt, in the region of Ethiopia, then spreading out to the Persia, in North Africa, until it reached Greece. He linked the arrival of the disease in Athens to the landing of Spartan troops in the Attica region (Athens was already at war with Sparta).
THE first manifestation of the disease happened in Piraeus, the port area that was a few kilometers away from the urban center of Athens. Then the disease “came up” to Athens and quickly spread throughout the city, affecting thousands of people. The moment of his arrival was the most inopportune possible, because the city was full of people who were sheltering there because of the war.
Athens was more crowded than usual because pericles, the Athenian ruler, had ordered the peasants who lived in Attica to shelter there, and the city was full of tents that welcomed these people. As we know, the disease was contagious and took advantage of this scenario to do great damage.
Athena Plague Symptoms
Thucydides also recorded the symptoms of the disease, and this helps us to get an idea of the suffering of people at that time. He said that the plague had great impact on both healthy and fragile people. From the moment they manifested the disease, a considerable part of the patients died within nine days.
In Thucydides' description, there are symptoms such as eye and mouth inflammation, bad breath, fever, cough and hoarseness, and stomach problems. We also know that some of the people felt severe heat and insomnia, and among those recovering, some had sequelae, such as amnesia, finger and joint problems.
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Fighting the Athens Plague
The Athenians identified that the plague was contagious because the places with the highest number of people were the most affected. Currently, experts believe that this disease has found virgin soil in Athens. This means that she had arrived in Athens for the first time, so the Athenians suffered the most from because their bodies didn't know how to fight her.
Thucydides even noted that people who contracted the disease for the second time manifested symptoms much weaker, which demonstrates the difference in their action between new victims and people who already possessed antibodies.
The Athenians thought the disease was a punishment of the gods, but also that it had been the result of water poisoning supposedly performed by Spartans. The disease spread quickly, and the Athenian doctors had no idea how to fight it.. Medicine at the time had neither the resources nor the knowledge for such action.
Doctors were one of the first groups to suffer the impact of the plague because they had direct contact with the sick. They quickly contracted the disease and many died. When they failed to give answers, people turned to faith, and many filled the temples in search of divine protection.
O despair brought on by the plague completely altered the routine of people in Athens. The death toll was very high, not everyone had proper funeral treatment, and many people threw themselves into a lifehedonistic (who seeks pleasure), going to parties, spending fortunes and drinking too much. This was because many believed that they would die soon and, therefore, wanted to enjoy life to the fullest.
What was the disease that struck Athens?
Although we have the registration made by Thucydides, we don't currently know what disease struck Athens in the V century a. Ç. Historians and other specialists debate to this day about what was the disease that affected the Greek city, since the symptoms described by the Greek historian match those of several pathologies.
Current studies work with the hypothesis that the Athena plague was one of these four diseases: smallpox, measles, typhusrash and fevertyphoid. So that we can understand how complex this is: in 2006, a Greek scientist named Manolis Papagrigorakis conducted a study in a ditch in an ancient cemetery in Athens.
In this study, he used scientific techniques that led him to conclude that the Athena plague was typhoid fever. However, his analysis was criticized by other professionals because it did not follow some necessary techniques and standards. It is impossible to predict whether we will one day know which disease has hit the Greek city.
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Consequences of the Athena Plague
the plague of Athens lasted threeyears old and left a great deal of damage in the Greek city. It is speculated that at least 1/3 of the Athenian population has died, something around 70 thousand people. Among the dead was Pericles, one of the best-known Athenian rulers in history.
Some historians suggest that the plague of Athens was one of the causes that led to the city's defeat in the Peloponnesian War. First because Pericles died in 429 a. a., and Athens lost its great leader; second, because the deaths of so many people affected the city's productivity and depleted the ranks of its army. However, this idea of the relationship between the plague and the Greek defeat is not supported by many historians who understand that its reasons are more complex.
