3.1 | The Plague of Athens
One-fourth of Athens’ inhabitants died in this plague. Overcrowding and a stormy winter were blamed for the spread of disease. Samuel Cohn cites Diodorus Siculus, a historian from the first century BC: Athens’ high death rate was caused by the many migrants who had relocated into the city’s ”cramped districts,” where they were exposed to ”polluted air.” As a result, rather than being the source of epidemics, migrants became the victims of ”polluted air.”
3.2 | The Antonine Plague
This plague killed up to 25% of the inhabitants of the Roman Empire. Galen, a contemporary historian, records skin eruption as a conspicuous sign of the plague, which suggests why smallpox is the most plausible culprit. Smallpox was transmitted by contact with contaminated objects or bodily fluids and through inhaling droplets from an infectious person’s cough, sneezing, or talking. The symptoms were deadly (infected people had pustules all over their bodies and faces). The pandemic nearly destroyed the Roman Army. Additionally, salaries rose due to severe labor scarcity.