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THE PLAGUE IN LIVY AND THUCYDIDES
This diatribe attempts to probe into two recorded instances of pestilence, the first occurring in Rome in 433-432 B.C. according to Livy1, and the second in Athens, in 430 B.C. according to Thucydides2. Our aim is to investigate whether a possible etiological connection could be established between the two instances of the plague 3.
Before doing so, a short introduction on the controversial issue of what the nature of the epidemic was might not be out of place. Most of our information must necessarily rest on Thucydides' description of the plague.
According to Thucydides' reliable, first hand testimony the epidemic affected first the head, causing burning red eyes, then the respiratory system, then progressed downards ; retching, internal heat, diarrhoea, unbearable thirst, despondency, coupled with skin blisters and ulcers were other, accompanying manifestations of the disease. Some, who escaped death, suffered brain damage - loss of memory - or necrosis of extremities.
The nature of the disease is being disputed, both by philologists and medical authorities4. The four main theories propose that it was either (a) a type of typhus, (b) smallpox, (c) pneumonic or bubonic plague, or
1 Livy, IV, 25, 3-7.
2 Thuc, II, 47-55 ; 59, 1-2 ; 61, 3-4 ; 64, 1. Cf. A. Gomme, A Historical Commentary on Thucydides, O C P, 1966, pp. 145 ff.
3 In two instances the coincidence was pointed out ; cf. J. B. Bury, History of Greece, 1977, p. 256, «But it is remarkable that a plague raged at the same time in the still obscure city of central Italy which was afterwards to become the mistress of Greece. It has been guessed with some plausibility that the infection which reached both Athens and Rome travelled along the trade routes from Carthage» ; and E. Watson Williams, The Sickness at Athens, in GR & R, 1957, p. 99, n. 3, «it had already crossed from Carthage to Rome.»
4 Cf. A. J. Holladay and J. Pool, Thucydides and the Plague of Athens, in CQ, 29 (1979), pp. 282-300. Cf. also H. Toole, The Plague of Athens and its Description by Thucydides, in PAA, 53 (1978), pp. 225-247 ; W. H. McNeill, Plagues and People, 1976, pp. 105-106, and 115-116 ; J. H. Wylie and H. W. Stubbs, The Plague of Athens 430-428 B.C. Epidemics and Epizootic, in CQ, 33, 1 (1983), pp. 6-11.
