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What diseases contributed to the fall of ancient Greece and Rome, and how did they do so?
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The fall of ancient Greece and Rome was significantly influenced by disease. In Greece, the plague of Athens (430 BCE) struck during the war with Sparta, killing about one-third of Athens' population, including General Pericles, weakening their military capability. In Rome, the Antonine Plague (165-180 CE) spread via trade routes and returning soldiers, killing approximately 25% of the population, thus exacerbating Rome's decline by compounding existing social and economic stresses.
Disease has the power to test civilizations. If a government is strong, it can withstand the spread of disease. If a government is weak, oftentimes disease exposes these problems and can lead to drastic decline or change, such as the famous Black Death that undermined the European feudal system and helped usher Europe into the Early Modern phase of monarchies and budding nation-states. Disease tests us still, with the rise of spread of Ebola and many mosquito-born viruses. However, the ancient world also experienced major outbreaks of disease, and two famous cases help demonstrate this: the plague of Athens and the Antonine Plague of Rome.
In the 400s BCE, the Athenian city-state was embroiled in war with the Spartan city-state. As the Spartans and her allies moved north to attack Athens, Athens walled herself in, connecting the port of Piraeus to the main city. While this was a brilliant military...
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tactic, as the Spartans relied on a land-based army, General Pericles did not anticipate a dangerous killer within the city walls: disease. In 430 BCE, plague broke out within Athenian walls, killing about one-third of the population (around 100,000 people). The plague came through the port of Piraeus, thanks to traders restocking Athenian supplies during wartime. Among those killed were General Pericles, and with him dead, military loss against the Spartans was ensured. Once plague died out in 426, the Spartans were a much larger and stronger force than the Athenians. While this wasn't the only reason Sparta won the war, it contributed heavily to Athenian decline and was a factor in Athens' loss.
Plague also had a massive impact on the fall of Rome. The Antonine Plague spread through Rome near the end of the Pax Romana in the years 165-180 CE. An increase in trade between East and West on the Silk Road brought plague to Europe, and returning Roman troops brought the disease home as well. As a result, plague killed approximately twenty-five percent of the population. Roman historian Dio Cassius estimates that 2,000 people died per day. Edward Gibbon, in his famous book The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, writes that
Pestilence and famine contributed to fill up the measure of the calamities of Rome.
Plague, then, had a major impact in the ancient world. It tested both Athens and Rome, and while disease was not the only factor in the fall of both societies, it contributed heavily to their decline.
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