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An Overwhelming Catastrophe
In this passage from his riveting account of the epidemic that struck Athens
in the spring of 430 BCE, Thucydides emphasizes two factors that are typi-
cal of disease outbreaks in cities. The rst is overcrowding, which helps a
disease spread; the second is the breakdown of various social norms and
customs, caused by widespread fear and chaos.

A factor which made matters much worse than they were already was
the removal of people from the country into the city [to take refuge
from the attacking Spartans], and this particularly affected the incom-
ers. There were no houses for them, and, living as they did during the
hot season in badly ventilated huts, they died like ies. The bodies of
the dying were heaped one on top of the other, and half-dead crea-
tures could be seen staggering about in the streets or ocking around
the fountains in their desire for water. The temples in which they took
up their quarters were full of the dead bodies of people who had died
inside them. For the catastrophe was so overwhelming that men,
not knowing what could happen next to them, became indifferent to
every rule of religion or of law. All the funeral ceremonies that used
to be observed were now disorganized and they buried the dead as
best as they could. . . . [Sometimes] they would throw the corpse they
were carrying on top of another one and go away.

Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War, trans. Rex Warner. New York: Penguin, 1972, pp. 154–55.

Rome Ravaged by Smallpox?
Although clearly deadly, in both scope and death toll the Athe-
nian epidemic of 430 BCE paled by comparison to a true pan-
demic that struck the Mediterranean world between 165 and
180 CE. Most of southern Europe, North Africa, and the Middle
East were then parts of the Roman Empire. The residents of
that realm suffered greatly from what eventually became known

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