GR: h nosos), meaning “the illness/disease.” In the case of Athens, Thucydides writes “the plague” (Anc.
The word “plague” is somewhat ambiguous, as it can be used to describe an epidemic generally, or the specific disease known as (bubonic) plague – the illness “caused by… Yersinia pestis, a zoonotic bacteria usually found in small mammals and their fleas,” according to the World Health Organization. Remarkably, Thucydides is the only ancient author who describes the late-5th c. In the end, we have to ask, was there actually an Athens “plague”? And can we really conclude Pericles was among its victims? An Eyewitness Account And it now is clear that the respected historian – on whom everyone since has relied for details of the plague – may have simplified, blame-shifted and exaggerated. Yet it seems there was much more to the story than what Thucydides reported. Thucydides himself became ill, but survived to tell a tale of epidemic disease and grim misery that gripped Athens in the early years of the Peloponnesian War. To add insult to injury, Athens’ great leader, Pericles, died in the autumn of 429 BC. A plague, appearing first in Piraeus, swept mercilessly through the confined Athenian population.
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