412_BC_epidemic

412 BC epidemic

412 BC epidemic

Disease outbreak in Ancient Greece and Rome

The 412 BC epidemic of an unknown disease, often identified as influenza,[1][2][3] was reported in Northern Greece by Hippocrates[4] and in Rome by Livy.[5] Both described the epidemic continuing for roughly a year.[citation needed]

The disease outbreak caused a food shortage in the Roman Republic, and a famine was only prevented with food relief from Sicily and Etruria, and via trade missions to the "peoples round about who dwelt on the Tuscan sea or by the Tiber."[6]

Symptoms

Hippocrates named a wide variety of symptoms, among them: fever, coughing, pain in head and neck, and emaciation. The disease proved fatal most often among prepubescent children.[4]

References

  1. [1]
    Potter, C. W. (2002). "Foreword". Influenza. Elsevier Science. p. vii.
  2. [2]
    Nelson, Kenrad E. (2001). Infectious Disease Epidemiology: Theory and Practice. Jones and Bartlett. p. 334.
  3. [3]
    Hardman, Lizabeth (2011). Influenza Pandemics. Lucent Books. p. 8.
  4. [4]
    Hippocrates, Of the Epidemics, Book I
  5. [5]
    Livy, The History of Rome, Book IV, 52, 3-5
  6. [6]
    Livy, The History of Rome, Book IV, 52, 5-6


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