Plague of Athens

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430 BC–426 BC · Athens · Europe · Nature

Wartime epidemic kills up to a quarter of the city, Pericles too

In the second year of the Peloponnesian War an epidemic struck refugee-packed Athens, killing perhaps a quarter of the population, Pericles among them. Thucydides, who survived it, described it in detail; the disease is still debated.

Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 5th century BC

Alive at the time

• Socrates (aged 40)
• Sophocles (aged 67)
• Pericles (aged 65)
• Herodotus (aged 54)
• Phidias (aged 50)
• Hippocrates (aged 30)
• Aspasia (aged 40)