Bored at home amid social distancing and the coronavirus pandemic, I got thinking about the pandemics of the past. I was especially interested in the pandemics the ancient Romans and Greeks faced. These days, we have a good understanding of how diseases spread and hence enforce measures, such as social distancing and hand washing, to prevent disease spread. However, the people of the classical world were not blessed with this knowledge. Without this knowledge, how did they deal with pandemics? How bad were the pandemics of the ancient world? What significance did pandemics have in classical history? I was curious about all these questions, so I researched. Here are the top four pandemics of the Ancient World and their implications:
This pandemic arose from Ethiopia and passed through Egypt and Libya to reach Greece. It would continue to infect people throughout the Mediterranean, but inflicted the most damage on Athens. The plague came amid the Peloponnesian War when the Spartans and their allies were attacking Athens by land. In order to combat this, under the leadership of Pericles, the Athenians retreated into the confines of their city walls. This introduced people from the countryside into the already heavily populated city. Under the dire situation of Spartan siege, Athens was attacked by another enemy. The pandemic had arrived at Athens’s port of Piraeus. The disease brought a whole host of terrible symptoms: high fever, blood in the throat and tongue, extreme thirst, and red lesions. The disease would usually kill its poor victims in 7 to 10 days’ time. It is now believed that this plague may have been typhoid fever.
Without knowledge of disease spread and prevention, the plague ravaged the city unchecked. Lawlessness broke out throughout the city with people losing all hope. Mass graves were made. The sick were left to die as fears of catching disease rose. By the time the plague had run its course, a quarter to a third of the population of Athens was dead and the longstanding power of Athens destroyed. With lessened numbers and morale, Athens lost to Sparta in the Peloponnesian War, ending the grandeur of the first democracy.
This devastating pandemic arose among the Huns. The Huns infected the Germans, who infected Roman soldiers. When the Roman soldiers returned home, they spread it to all over the Roman Empire. Once again, with limited knowledge of disease spread, the Antonine Plague wreaked havoc throughout the Roman Empire. The Physician Galen (from whom the plague’s second name is derived: the Plague of Galen) was able to describe the symptoms: fever, diarrhea, inflammation of pharynx (pharyngitis), and skin eruptions[1]. Regardless, millions fell prey to the pandemic, including Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, whose family name was associated with the deadly disease. By the end of the pandemic, which is now thought to have been smallpox, 5 million people had died, about 10% of the population of the Roman Empire.
The Plague of Athens (430 BC)
Antonine Plague (165-180 AD)
Saksham Saksena
TJCL Communications Coordinator
Houston High School, TN
The Great Pandemics of the Classical
World