The Peloponnesian War by Thucydides - 2 - Plague and War
Book Two
Quote
"The doctors could offer little help at first: they were attempting to treat the disease without knowing what it was, and in fact there was particularly high mortality among doctors because of their particular exposure. No other human skill could help either, and all supplications at temples and consultations of oracles and the like were of no avail. In the end the people were overcome by the disaster and abandoned all efforts to escape it."
Notes
War is officially triggered when Thebes invades the city of Plataea, but this is only one of the many possible smaller fights that could have triggered it. Everyone was anticipating the war to begin. It was only a matter of time.
Both sides gather their armies and their allies. Sparta sends out a land army to invade Athens. King Archidamus, who had advised caution and restraint about starting this war, gives a sober speech to launch it: "War is unpredictable ... In enemy country there is constant need for both confidence and fear — a brave spirit for battle, but also practical precautions inspired by fear."
He sends a messenger to Athens to see if they'll just surrender when they see the strength and size of the Spartan army approaching them. Athens doesn't allow the him in to give the message at all. They immediately send him away and he says, "This day will be the beginning of great disasters for the Greeks."
Pericles, now a general, advises strong defense of the city and to focus their efforts on their navy where they are much stronger and can maintain their trade and shipping resources. Everyone living in the surrounding countryside of Athens all have to leave their homes and go into the city where they can be defended. They all find places for themselves in any space they can find. Athens is crammed with people.
Archidamus hopes to lure the Athenians out by destroying the homes and land in their countryside. Many Athenians do get upset seeing their land being destroyed and a lot start putting pressure on Pericles to go out and fight. But Pericles holds his position.
The Athenian navy is having success attacking cities along the Peloponnesian coastline and moving into cities all throughout Greece, but a lot of people are dying. There is a state funeral for the Athenian dead and Pericles gives an epic speech telling the story of Athens and how it became so great. He pays respect to all who had come before and had made Athens into what it is. He goes into detail praising Athens for the courage of its army and the strength of their democracy. He says "we are unique in the way we regard anyone who takes no part in public affairs: we do not call that a quiet life, we call it a useless life." The aim of the speech is to show that fighting and dying for Athens is a worthy cause.
Then the plague breaks out in Athens and starts killing everyone. The symptoms are horrific and no one has a clue how to stop it. Their throats bleed and they cough violently. The disease then works its way down their bodies and "when it settles in the stomach the turmoil caused there leads to the voiding of bile in every form for which the doctors have a name, all this with great pain." For anyone who survived this, it then moved to other parts of their bodies. "It attacked genitals, fingers, and toes, and many lived on with these parts lost."
Since so many had moved into the city from outside, the amount of dead bodies is overwhelming. There are dead bodies all throughout Athens being burned in giant piles or left rotting wherever they died. There is no way to process the mass deaths, and "as a result, they decide to look for satisfactions that were quick and pleasurable, reckoning that neither life or wealth would last long." Religious and civic laws are ignored. No one cares since they figure they're all going to die any second.
Despite all of that, the war keeps going and the Athenians keep fighting. But the plague is killing their armies, too. Strangely, it doesn't spread over to the Peloponnesians. No one in Sparta gets it.
The Athenians feel overwhelmed and many start pressing for surrender. Pericles delivers another speech to encourage everyone to keep going. He wants them to think about how future generations will remember them for how they fought in this war. Pericles soon dies from the plague, and the leadership that takes over from him is much less unified or inspiring. But still the war keeps going.
Sparta sends a messenger to go to the Persians and see if they'll join there side. This isn't all that long after the Persian Wars, but apparently they've moved on from all that. Athens catches the messenger and kills him before he can get to Persia.
Key Takeaways
The plague was horrifying. The fact that Athens was able to keep the war going at all while the plague wreaked absolute havoc on them is incredible. It seems apocalyptic and it's impossible to imagine the impact it had on their sense of the world or their standing with their gods. The fact that it broke out right at the start of this war seems like a horribly negative fate.
Pericles was a great speaker and a captivating leader. Thucydides speaks very highly of Pericles and describes him as a true leader and didn't simply tell people what they wanted to hear. He writes: "Whenever he saw them dangerously overconfident, he would make a speech which shocked them into a state of apprehension, and likewise he could return them from irrational fear to confidence. What was happening was democracy in name, but in fact the domination of the leading man."
This raises an interesting question about democracy. If a leader is elected by the people, shouldn't he/she do what the people want him/her to do? In Pericles's case, though, he made use of his power to speak and to persuade to lead the people toward his way of thinking. Maybe that's a better picture of democracy in action: it's a process of discussion and consensus building, as opposed to simply a system of majority rule.