Latest / Ancient Greece: Philosophy, Democracy, and Endless War — Fexingo History / The Plague of Athens: Democracy Under Siege by Disease
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about Athens at war, about democracy, about its leaders. But there's one event that devastated the city more than any battle, and it's something Thucydides describes in almost clinical detail — the Plague of Athens. Luna: The plague that hit during the Peloponnesian War, right? I remember it killed Pericles. Lucas: Exactly. It broke out in 430 BCE, just a year into the war. Athens was packed with people — the city had brought everyone inside the Long Walls for protection, so you had rural refugees crammed into makeshift housing alongside the urban population. And then the disease hit. Thucydides says it started in the Piraeus, the port, possibly brought by a ship from Egypt or Ethiopia. Luna: He was a survivor himself, wasn't he? Lucas: Yes, Thucydides caught it and recovered, which makes his account so valuable. He describes the symptoms in gruesome detail: fever, red eyes, throat and tongue bleeding, foul breath, sneezing, hoarseness, then coughing, vomiting, and diarrhoea. The skin broke out in blisters and ulcers. People died within seven to nine days. And the worst part — those who survived often lost their fingers, toes, or eyesight. Some recovered but then lost their memory. Luna: That sounds terrifying. Did anyone know what caused it? Lucas: No. Hippocrates and his followers were active then, but they understood disease as an imbalance of humours, not contagion. Thucydides himself rejected the idea that the gods sent it — he was a rationalist. But the Athenians desperately turned to oracles and prayers. The sanctuaries were full of supplicants, but it didn't help. People just died in the temples, and the priests died too. Luna: So faith in the gods must have taken a hit. Lucas: Massively. Thucydides says that the plague caused unprecedented lawlessness. People stopped fearing the gods because they saw the pious and impious dying alike. They stopped following funeral customs — bodies were piled up, thrown onto pyres, sometimes on other people's pyres. Social norms collapsed. People indulged in immediate pleasure because they figured they'd be dead soon anyway. Luna: And all this while Sparta was ravaging the countryside. Lucas: Right. Spartan armies marched into Attica every summer, but they stayed away from the walls. The irony: the disease did more damage than the Spartans ever could. It's estimated that a third of Athens' population died. The army and navy were decimated. Pericles himself died in 429 BCE, after a lingering illness — probably from the plague, though Thucydides doesn't explicitly say so. His death left Athens without its most capable leader. Luna: So the plague basically changed the course of the war. Lucas: Absolutely. After Pericles, more populist and aggressive leaders like Cleon took over. The war dragged on for another 25 years, but Athens never fully recovered its population or morale. And the plague had another effect: it worsened the already tense relationship between rich and poor. The wealthy who survived were sometimes targeted for their property. The democracy became more radical and more cynical. Luna: What do modern scientists think it actually was? We have theories, right? Lucas: Oh, plenty. For decades it was thought to be bubonic plague — the Black Death — but the symptoms don't match well. More recent theories include typhoid fever, which a 2006 DNA study of teeth from a mass grave in Kerameikos suggested. But others argue for Ebola or Marburg virus, given the bleeding from orifices. Smallpox has also been proposed. The truth is, we'll probably never know for sure. Thucydides' description is detailed but not precise enough for a modern diagnosis. Luna: It's fascinating that we're still arguing about it 2,500 years later. Lucas: It really is. And you know, as we talk about this, it's worth stepping back for a moment. This show exists because listeners like you support it. If you've been getting something out of these conversations — about Mediterranean history, about ancient crises and how people coped — a couple of dollars a month genuinely makes a difference. You can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It keeps the show ad-free and allows us to dive into these deep topics. Luna: Yeah, it's a small way to say thanks for the hours of research and storytelling. Lucas: Exactly. And it really does help. So, back to the plague: one thing that struck me is how Thucydides uses the plague as a kind of mirror for Athenian society. He contrasts the orderly democracy before the plague with the chaos during it. It's almost like he's saying that without civic virtue, the city falls apart. Luna: So the plague exposed the cracks in Athenian democracy. Lucas: Yes, but also revealed its resilience in some ways. Despite the devastation, Athens didn't surrender. They rebuilt their navy, continued fighting, and even launched the Sicilian Expedition a few years later — though that ended in disaster. The plague was a trauma, but it didn't break the Athenian spirit entirely. It just changed the trajectory. Luna: It makes you wonder how we would react if something similar hit today. Lucas: Well, we've had our own recent experiences with pandemics, and we saw some of the same patterns — hoarding, blame, social breakdown, but also heroism. Thucydides' account is still relevant because he captures the human reaction to mass death. He says, 'The catastrophe was so overwhelming that men, not knowing what would happen next, became indifferent to every rule of religion or law.' That's a timeless observation.