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Plague of Athens
The Plague of Athens (Ancient Greek: Λοιμὸς τῶν Ἀθηνῶν, Loimos tôn Athênôn) was an epidemic that devastated the city-state of Athens in ancient Greece during the second year (430 BC) of the Peloponnesian War when an Athenian victory still seemed within reach. The plague killed an estimated 75,000 to 100,000 people, around 25% of the population, and is believed to have entered Athens through Piraeus, the city's port and sole source of food and supplies. Thucydides, an Athenian survivor, wrote that much of the eastern Mediterranean also saw an outbreak of the disease, albeit with less impact.
The war, along with the plague, had lasting effects on Athenian society. Short-term, there was civil disorder, and violations of usual funerary practices. Thucydides describes a decrease in traditional religious practices and increase in superstitious explanations. He estimates that it took 15 years for the Athenian population to recover. Long-term, the high death toll drastically redistributed wealth within Athenian society, and weakened Athens politically.
The plague returned in 429, and a third time in the winter of 427/426 BC. Thucydides left a detailed account of the plague's symptoms and epidemiology. Some 30 pathogens have been suggested as having caused the plague.
Sparta and its allies, except for Corinth, were almost exclusively land-based powers, able to summon large land armies that were very nearly unbeatable. In the face of a combined campaign on land from Sparta and its allies beginning in 431 BC, the Athenians, under the direction of Pericles, pursued a policy of retreat within the city walls of Athens, relying on Athenian maritime supremacy for supply while the superior Athenian navy harassed Spartan troop movements. Unfortunately, the strategy also resulted in massive migration from the Attic countryside into an already highly populated city, generating overpopulation and resource shortage. Due to the close quarters and poor hygiene exhibited at that time, Athens became a breeding ground for disease, and many citizens died. In the history of epidemics in wartime, the 'Plague' of Athens is remarkable for the limitation of the affliction to one side as well as for its influence on the outcome of the war.[citation needed] The Athenians thought that the Spartans could have poisoned their water supply to kill them to win the Peloponnesian War. The Spartans somehow were unaffected by the plague, which may have been a reason for the Athenians' suspicion. It has been noted that the Plague of Athens was the worst sickness of Classical Greece.
In his History of the Peloponnesian War, the historian Thucydides, who was present and contracted the disease himself and survived, describes the epidemic. He writes of a disease coming from Ethiopia and passing through Egypt and Libya into the Greek world and spreading throughout the wider Mediterranean; a plague so severe and deadly that no one could recall anywhere its like, and physicians ignorant of its nature not only were helpless but themselves died the fastest, having had the most contact with the sick. In overcrowded Athens, the disease killed an estimated 25% of the population. The sight of the burning funeral pyres of Athens caused the Spartans to withdraw their troops, being unwilling to risk contact with the diseased enemy. Many of Athens' infantry and expert seamen died. According to Thucydides, not until 415 BC had Athens recovered sufficiently to mount a major offensive, the disastrous Sicilian Expedition.[citation needed]
The first corroboration of the plague was not revealed until 1994-95 when excavation revealed the first mass grave. Upon this discovery, Thucydides' accounts of the event as well as analysis of the remains had been used to try to identify the cause of the epidemic.
There was severe overcrowding due to the ongoing war. During this time refugees from the Peloponnesian war had immigrated within the Long Walls of Athens, inflating the populations of Athens, the port of Piraeus, and the area along the road between them, which was also within the Long Walls. The population had tripled or quadrupled, from a prewar population of around 100–150,000 (60,000 citizens, 25,000 metics and no more than 70,000 slaves) to 300–400,000. This gave a population density of 25,000 inhabitants per square mile (9,700/km2) to 100,000 inhabitants per square mile (39,000/km2).
Athenians tried to reduce the effects of this overcrowding by moving the cattle to Euboea; as the disease spread, there were also official and unofficial quarantines.
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Plague of Athens
The Plague of Athens (Ancient Greek: Λοιμὸς τῶν Ἀθηνῶν, Loimos tôn Athênôn) was an epidemic that devastated the city-state of Athens in ancient Greece during the second year (430 BC) of the Peloponnesian War when an Athenian victory still seemed within reach. The plague killed an estimated 75,000 to 100,000 people, around 25% of the population, and is believed to have entered Athens through Piraeus, the city's port and sole source of food and supplies. Thucydides, an Athenian survivor, wrote that much of the eastern Mediterranean also saw an outbreak of the disease, albeit with less impact.
The war, along with the plague, had lasting effects on Athenian society. Short-term, there was civil disorder, and violations of usual funerary practices. Thucydides describes a decrease in traditional religious practices and increase in superstitious explanations. He estimates that it took 15 years for the Athenian population to recover. Long-term, the high death toll drastically redistributed wealth within Athenian society, and weakened Athens politically.
The plague returned in 429, and a third time in the winter of 427/426 BC. Thucydides left a detailed account of the plague's symptoms and epidemiology. Some 30 pathogens have been suggested as having caused the plague.
Sparta and its allies, except for Corinth, were almost exclusively land-based powers, able to summon large land armies that were very nearly unbeatable. In the face of a combined campaign on land from Sparta and its allies beginning in 431 BC, the Athenians, under the direction of Pericles, pursued a policy of retreat within the city walls of Athens, relying on Athenian maritime supremacy for supply while the superior Athenian navy harassed Spartan troop movements. Unfortunately, the strategy also resulted in massive migration from the Attic countryside into an already highly populated city, generating overpopulation and resource shortage. Due to the close quarters and poor hygiene exhibited at that time, Athens became a breeding ground for disease, and many citizens died. In the history of epidemics in wartime, the 'Plague' of Athens is remarkable for the limitation of the affliction to one side as well as for its influence on the outcome of the war.[citation needed] The Athenians thought that the Spartans could have poisoned their water supply to kill them to win the Peloponnesian War. The Spartans somehow were unaffected by the plague, which may have been a reason for the Athenians' suspicion. It has been noted that the Plague of Athens was the worst sickness of Classical Greece.
In his History of the Peloponnesian War, the historian Thucydides, who was present and contracted the disease himself and survived, describes the epidemic. He writes of a disease coming from Ethiopia and passing through Egypt and Libya into the Greek world and spreading throughout the wider Mediterranean; a plague so severe and deadly that no one could recall anywhere its like, and physicians ignorant of its nature not only were helpless but themselves died the fastest, having had the most contact with the sick. In overcrowded Athens, the disease killed an estimated 25% of the population. The sight of the burning funeral pyres of Athens caused the Spartans to withdraw their troops, being unwilling to risk contact with the diseased enemy. Many of Athens' infantry and expert seamen died. According to Thucydides, not until 415 BC had Athens recovered sufficiently to mount a major offensive, the disastrous Sicilian Expedition.[citation needed]
The first corroboration of the plague was not revealed until 1994-95 when excavation revealed the first mass grave. Upon this discovery, Thucydides' accounts of the event as well as analysis of the remains had been used to try to identify the cause of the epidemic.
There was severe overcrowding due to the ongoing war. During this time refugees from the Peloponnesian war had immigrated within the Long Walls of Athens, inflating the populations of Athens, the port of Piraeus, and the area along the road between them, which was also within the Long Walls. The population had tripled or quadrupled, from a prewar population of around 100–150,000 (60,000 citizens, 25,000 metics and no more than 70,000 slaves) to 300–400,000. This gave a population density of 25,000 inhabitants per square mile (9,700/km2) to 100,000 inhabitants per square mile (39,000/km2).
Athenians tried to reduce the effects of this overcrowding by moving the cattle to Euboea; as the disease spread, there were also official and unofficial quarantines.