7.4 Plague in Athens

In the spring of 430 King Archidamus again set out from Sparta with an army to devastate the lands of Attica. The Athenian country people again withdrew behind the walls of Athens for safety. But this time the devastation to Athens would be much worse than anything Sparta could inflict on them directly. Traders from Egypt brought an infection from Ethiopia on their ships. What exactly the disease was we cannot say: bubonic plague, influenza or some other epidemic. With people from the country crammed into the great city with whatever they could pack and many setting up shantytowns in open spaces, sanitation conditions were bad and contact with others unavoidable. Conditions were ripe for an outbreak of disease, and the ships in the Piraeus brought a frightful one with their cargoes of grain. <a href="https://medium.com/the-first-philosophers/7-4-plague-in-athens-cd7fd178f29e">Visit Now</a>