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Sweerts, Plague in an Ancient City · c. 1652–54

Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Book 2: The end of the first year

The winter of the Funeral Oration ends, and with it the first year of the war.

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Book 2, passage by passage

• 2.47.1 The end of the first year. Such was the funeral that took place in this winter. When the winter had…
• 2.47.2 The second invasion of Attica. At the very beginning of summer the Peloponnesians and their allies, with two thirds…
• 2.47.3 The plague reaches Athens. The invaders had not yet been many days in Attica when the sickness first…
• 2.47.4 Doctors and prayers could not help. For at first the doctors could not cope, since they were treating it in…
• 2.48.1 The plague begins in Ethiopia. It is said to have begun in Ethiopia, the country above Egypt. From there…
• 2.48.2 It reaches Athens and the Piraeus. It fell on the city of the Athenians suddenly. It first took hold of…
• 2.48.3 I had it myself. Let everyone, doctor or layman, say what he thinks about it: where it was…
• 2.49.1 A healthy year. As everyone agreed, that year happened to be more free than any other from…
• 2.49.2 Fever, red eyes, a bloody throat. The others had been in good health, and with no apparent cause they were…
• 2.49.3 Sneezing, cough, vomiting of bile. Next, sneezing and hoarseness followed from these, and before long the pain came down…
• 2.49.4 Retching and spasm. A retching fell upon most of the sick, an empty one, and it brought…
• 2.49.5 Burning inside, cisterns outside. To the touch the body was not very hot on the outside, nor pale,…
• 2.49.6 Death by the burning, or by the bowels. There was the helplessness of being unable to keep still, and sleeplessness weighed on…
• 2.49.7 The evil travels down the body. For the evil, which had first settled in the head, passed through the whole…
• 2.49.8 Lost limbs, eyes and memory. For it fell on the genitals and on the tips of the hands and…
• 2.50.1 Birds and beasts keep away from the dead. For the disease, as it came, was beyond description, and in other ways it…
• 2.50.2 The dogs show what happened. The proof was this. The disappearance of such birds was plain, and they were…
• 2.51.1 No two cases alike. The disease, then, passing over many other oddities in how it happened to differ…
• 2.51.2 No remedy that helped. Some were dying through neglect, and others even though they were very well treated.…
• 2.51.3 No body was strong enough. No body showed itself sufficient against it, whether in strength or in weakness, but…
• 2.51.4 Despair and dying like sheep. The most terrible thing in the whole suffering was the despair whenever anyone realized…
• 2.51.5 No one to nurse them. If people were afraid and refused to go near one another, they died alone,…
• 2.51.6 The survivors pity the sick. Still, those who had come through felt all the more pity for the dying…
• 2.52.1 The country people crowd in. The hardship pressed on them still harder because of the crowding of the country…
• 2.52.2 Dying in the huts and the streets. For there were no houses for them, and they were living in stifling huts…
• 2.52.3 Bodies in the temples. The temples, in which people had made their camp, were full of the dead…
• 2.52.4 Burial customs thrown into confusion. All the customs they had formerly observed in burial were thrown into confusion, and…
• 2.53.1 The plague breeds lawlessness. The disease first began to bring more lawlessness to the city in other ways…
• 2.53.2 Spend it fast. So they thought it right to make their enjoyments quick and aimed at what…
• 2.53.3 No one strives for honor. And no one was eager to keep toiling for what seemed noble, thinking it…
• 2.53.4 Neither gods nor laws held anyone back. No fear of the gods and no law of men held anyone back. People…
• 2.54.1 Pressed from two sides. Such was the disaster into which the Athenians had fallen, and it pressed them…
• 2.54.2 The old verse is remembered. In their trouble, as one would expect, they also recalled this verse, which the…
• 2.54.3 Plague or famine. There was a dispute among people over whether the ancients had said "famine" in…
• 2.54.4 What the god told the Spartans. The oracle given to the Spartans was also remembered by those who knew of…
• 2.54.5 The plague stays out of the Peloponnese. Now, as to the oracle, people judged that what was happening matched it. For…

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