THE PLAGUE AT SYRACUSE: 396 B.C.

BY

R. J. LITTMAN

In 396 B.C. the Carthaginians besieged Syracuse'). Diodorus (14, 70, 4) records that a plague struck the army of Carthage with such devastating effects that Dionysius of Syracuse was able to lead an attack against the weakened Carthaginians and decisively defeat them. Diodorus' account is the only extant one that describes this plague. While the communis opinio has generally been that the disease is , there has not been a systematic analysis of the symptoms. It is the purpose of this paper to (1) suggest that this plague was part of the same that struck Athens 430-427 B. C . and (2) analyse the symptoms and confirm the identity of the disease. Highly contagious plagues do not strike a single city at a single time and then disappear. The normal life span for an epidemic is 30 to 40 years. In the first attack a majority of the population would be infected. Those that survived would develop a total or limited immunity, depending on the disease. However, within a few years, new children would be born who did not have that immunity. Also some of those who might not have contracted the disease in the first outbreak might catch the disease in the second. For example, our records are particularly good for smallpox during the eighteenth century in Mexico. Severe outbreaks occurred in 1761, 1779/80, 1797/98, with a declining mortality rate with each outbreak 2). Another example of the 'life-span' of a plague (most likely smallpox) can be seen in the Antonine plague which struck the in the second century A.D.3). This epidemic began

1) A version of this paper was presented at the 1979 annual meeting of the American Philological Association (Society for Ancient Medicine) in Boston. 2) See D. B. Cooper, EpidemicDisease in MexicoCity 1761-1813 (Austin 1965), 68 ff. See also F. Prinzing, EpidemicsResulting, fromWars (Oxford 1916), 222. 3) See S. H.A. Verus 8, 1-2, for ancient account. Also J. F. Gilliam, The Plague underMarcus Aurelius,AJP 82 (1961), 228-9; R. J. & M. L. Littman, Galenand the AntoninePlague, AJP 94 (1973), 243-55. 111 at the end of 165 A.D. in Mesopotamia and spread to within the year. The plague lasted at least until the reign of in 180 A.D., with another probable outbreak in 189 A.D. Whether the highly contagious plague disease was smallpox, typhus, or some like disease, we would expect a similar pattern. If we examine the Athenian plague, we find gaps in our information. While I have argued elsewhere that the plague at Athens was smallpox4), whatever one identifies the disease as, it would be normal to expect a 30 to 40 year life span of the plague, with each major outbreak being less severe. We learn from Thucydides (II 48) that the plague struck Athens in summer 430 and lasted for two years. The disease had first begun in Ethiopia, came into Egypt and Libya, and spread over much of Persia and to the Greek island of Lemnos before coming to Athens. After a devastating period of two years, there was a respite, and then in 427 B.C. the plague broke out again, and this time lasted over a year (Thuc. III 87). In the period 430-428 B.C. the plague was not serious in the Peloponnese (Thuc. II 44, 5). However, Thucydides implies that cities other than Athens were attacked when he says (II 44, 5) that Athens was most affected, as were places that had the densest population. In the same summer (Thuc. II 58), the Athenian fleet under Hagnon sailed to aid the siege of Potideia. It brought the plague with it, and even the soldiers of the first expedition became infected. After these two outbreaks of the plague in 430-428 and in 427 B.C., Thucydides makes no further mention of the plague. Given our knowledge of patterns of plagues, it would be extremely

4) R. J. & M. L. Littman, The Athenian Plague: Smallpox,TAPA 100 (1969), 261-75. Scholarly arguments about the 'diagnosis' of the Plague at Athens con- tinue to produce numerous articles. The latest (which argues that no diagnosis is possible) is that by J. C. F. Poole and A. J. Holladay, Thucydidesand the Plagueof Athens,CQ n.s. 29 (1979), 282-300, and earlier essays that argue in favor of typhus include J. Scarborough, Thucydides,Greek Medicine, and the Plague at Athens: A Summaryof Possibilities,Episteme 4 (1970), 77-90, and W. P. MacArthur, The AthenianPlague: A Medical Note, CQ 48 (1954), 171-4. Other arguments are sum- marized by Scarborough and Poole and Holladay, and a careful assessment of many of the problems that cluster around modern views of ancient diseases is provided by M. D. Grmek, La réaliténosologique au tempsd'Hippocrate, in La Collection hippocratiqueet son rôledan l'histoirede la médecine:Colloque de Strasbourg(23-27 octobre 1972) (Leiden 1975), 237-55 [esp. 249-50].