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devastating Peloponnesian War, fought between Athens and its
archrival, Sparta. During that confl ict, Thucydides writes, in the
spring of 430 BCE the Spartans found an unexpected ally—a
terrible disease that descended on the Athenians. By observ-
ing sick people, and also as a result of contracting the malady
himself, the historian was able to concisely notate the painful

symptoms in considerable detail. People who seemed to be in
good health, he reports,

suddenly began to have burning feelings in the head. Their
eyes became red and infl amed. Inside their mouths there
was bleeding from the throat and tongue, and the breath
became unnatural and unpleasant. The next symptoms
were sneezing and hoarseness of voice, and before long,
the pain settled on the chest and was accompanied by
coughing. Next the stomach was affected, with stomach-
aches and with vomiting of every kind of bile. . . . The skin
was rather reddish and livid, breaking out into small pus-
tules [boils] and ulcers . . . and [later came] uncontrollable
diarrhea. 11

Some modern medical authorities say that several of these
symptoms are similar to those of typhoid fever. Others have
speculated that the Athenian plague was an early outbreak of
either smallpox or measles. Whatever it actually was, the disease
spread quickly through the crowded, walled city, and at least
20 percent of the population per-
By theNUMBERS ished. Of the survivors, some went
blind and many children were or-
Modern estimates place the phaned. In addition, the city-state’s
Athenian plague’s death toll at chief politician and military general,
75,000 to 100,000, or approximately Pericles, died of the illness, leaving
25 percent of the city-state’s
population. leaders of lesser quality to handle
the double crisis of war and plague.

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