Some Historical Pandemics
October 31st, 2006There have been a number of significant pandemics in human history, generally zoonoses that came about with domestication of animals - such as influenza and tuberculosis. There have been a number of particularly significant epidemics that deserve mention above the ‘mere’ destruction of cities:
Peloponnesian War, 430 BCE. Typhoid fever killed a quarter of the Athenian troops and a quarter of the population over four years. This disease fatally weakened the dominance of Athens, but the sheer virulence of the disease prevented its wider spread; i.e. it killed off its hosts at a rate faster than they could spread it. The exact cause of the plague was unknown for many years; in January 2006, researchers from the University of Athens analyzed teeth recovered from a mass grave underneath the city, and confirmed the presence of bacteria responsible for typhoid.
Antonine Plague, 165-180. Possibly smallpox brought back from the Near East; killed a quarter of those infected and up to five million in all. At the height of a second outbreak (251-266) 5,000 people a day were said to be dying in Rome…
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