Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 2.48.1 · 2.48.1
The plague begins in Ethiopia
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ἤρξατο δὲ τὸ μὲν πρῶτον, ὡς λέγεται, ἐξ Αἰθιοπίας τῆς ὑπὲρ Αἰγύπτου, ἔπειτα δὲ καὶ ἐς Αἴγυπτον καὶ Λιβύην κατέβη καὶ ἐς τὴν βασιλέως γῆν τὴν πολλήν.
It is said to have begun in Ethiopia, the country above Egypt. From there it came down into Egypt and Libya, and into most of the land of the Persian King.
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The setting
Thucydides gives the reported route of the sickness: out of Ethiopia, down into Egypt and Libya, and across most of the Persian king's land.
A note on this passage
The report is hedged at once with hōs legetai, "as it is said," so Thucydides gives the origin as hearsay and keeps his own voice for what he saw himself, which comes in the next chapters. Katebē, "came down," is the ordinary verb for going from higher ground to lower, and it fits a route that runs downstream from Ethiopia, the land "above" Egypt (hyper Aigyptou).
The last phrase says tēn basileōs gēn, "the king's land." With no name attached, basileus means the Persian king, the one ruler a Greek could call simply "the King." The closing tēn pollēn takes the article with the adjective, "the greater part of it," so the sickness is credited with covering most of that empire, not all.
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