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.