Thucydides on the Plague of Athens - Ancient Literature and Sources (Ancient Greece)

The Second Peloponnesian War. Sparta is at Athens' doorstep, and Athenian general Pericles orders all those outside of Athens' walls to enter the city proper, in an attempt to protect them. Little did the military strategist know, something worse would be lurking within. After Greece defeated the Persian army under Xerxes, in the earlier part of the 5th century BCE, the city-states would form alliances, in order to protect themselves from another invasion. Sparta was the head of the Peloponnesian League, while Athens, now headed by Pericles, was the foremost city of the Delian League. Pericles would have the famous Parthenon built, and Greek science, philosophy, and art flourished under him. They would benefit greatly from the alliance, gaining power to rival Sparta. Defensive walls were built, and the Athenian navy expanded. After the First Peloponnesian War, ending in 446 BCE, the Thirty Years' Peace Treaty was ratified. But the Second Peloponnesian War would start soon, in 431 BCE, and was much more destructive. Thucydides, a historian, living during this Greek classical period, in his History of the Peloponnesian War, writes of a mysterious plague that afflicted Athens just a year into the conflict. There were rumors, that the Spartans poisoned the Athenian water in their war efforts, but there's no evidence for this, and Thucydides, claims the plague might have originated from further. Pericles forcing the population within the Athenian walls, made for the perfect conditions for this disease to thrive. Thucydides himself fell victim to the plague, but was lucky enough to have been spared, so we can listen to his account of it. The disease began with a strong fever in the head, and reddening, and burning in the eyes, the first internal symptoms were that the throat, and tongue became bloody, and the breath unnatural. In a short time the affliction descended to the chest, producing violent coughing. When it became established in the heart, it convulsed, and produced every kind of evacuation of bile known to the doctors, accompanied by great discomfort. Most victims then suffered from empty retching, which induced violent convulsions. The disease worked its way right through the body, from the top, settling in the head. If anyone survived the worst symptoms, the disease left its mark by catching his extremities. It attacked the privy parts, and the fingers and toes, and many people survived, but lost these, while others lost their eyes. Others, on first recovering, suffered a total loss of memory, and were unable to recognize themselves, and their relatives. As the plague ravaged the Athenians from within, the Spartans were a threat from without. Even though Thucydides survived the plague, Pericles himself would succumb to it, and Athens would eventually fall, leading to the Spartans controlling the city-state to close the Second Peloponnesian War, and dissolving the Delian League.