WORLD HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -In 430 BC, a plague struck the city of Athens, which was then under siege by Sparta during the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC). In the next 3 years, most of the population was infected, and perhaps as many as 75, 000 to 100, 000 people, 25% of the city’s population, died.

Detailed explanation-2: -Smallpox is one of the most popularly mentioned causes of the plague of Athens. Although there is no consensus among classical scholars or clinicians, smallpox is a leading contender for the cause.

Detailed explanation-3: -The epidemic killed 30 to 50 percent of the entire population of Europe. Between 75 and 200 million people died in a few years’ time, starting in 1348 when the plague reached London.

Detailed explanation-4: -Today, we know that the Plague of Athens was in fact a pandemic. Our Greek historian tells us in his accounts that before reaching the present Greek capital, the disease had already spread to Egypt, Libya, and much of the territory of the Persian Empire.

Detailed explanation-5: -Now three medical researchers and a classics professor are suggesting that the Plague of Athens (circa 430-425 B.C.) was, in fact, an attack of Ebola, the modern world’s most vicious virus (up to 90 percent of those stricken with Ebola die) and, for a while, the world’s most celebrated.