The Peloponnesian War

The Peloponnesian war was fought between the Athenians and the Spartans in the fifth century. The war was fought on both land and sea; the Spartans on land and the Athenians on sea. The Athenians had the stronger navy and the Spartans the stronger army. Additionally, the Athenians were better prepared financially than their enemies. However, what determined the winner of the war had far less to do with military superiority as it had to do with a secret weapon that decimated one quarter to one third of the Athenian population. During the second year of the war a plague began to attack and kill the Athenian people.

The plague that attacked the Athenians during the Peloponnesian war was endemic in nature in that it primarily effected people residing on the African continent particularly Egypt, Libya Ethiopia and surrounding cities. According to history and Thucydides’ account the plague never spread to the rest of the world and thus never reached pandemic proportions.

The plague, as described by Thucydides, corresponds to the pneumonic class of plague defined by Perlin and Cohen as infecting the lungs and producing “fever, headache, weakness and a cough that produces blood or watery sputum (pg 71). The Athenians once inflicted with the plague developed all of the aforementioned symptoms as well as ulceration of the skin, redness and irritation of the eyes as well as memory loss. The idea that the plague that struck Athens was of the pneumonic nature is further supported by the fact that it was easily spread through the air, which could and did affect any one who came in close contact with an infected individual. Additionally the fact that the bacteria was so quickly developing resistant and new and more powerful strains supports the fact that the plague was pneumonic in nature and thus more difficult to treat.

As fighting increased, the spread of the disease was further exacerbated by the migration of people from the countryside to within the city walls. This mass migration of people lead to overcrowding, overpopulation, lack of housing food and resources which in turn promoted rapid